For 150 years, decedents of Spanish settlers in Costilla County have claimed communal rights to graze livestock, hunt and fish, and gather firewood on La Sierra. These uses were necessary as subsistence to maintain their agrarian lifestyle and were guaranteed by the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant in 1844. The US government confirmed these rights in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. In 1960, North Carolina timber baron Jack Taylor made a significant purchase, acquiring 77,500 acres of land on the mountain the community calls La Sierra. Taylor's actions were not benign-he fenced off access to the mountain, hired gunmen to keep local residents out, and initiated a large-scale logging operation. This operation directly threatened the health of the mountain tributaries, the community's sole water source. The Land Rights Council was formed in 1978 to fight for the right to access food, water, and other resources critical to the livelihood of families in Costilla County. Four separate landowners began a litigation battle that lasted many decades.