Santa Fe Standard

From March 17, 2023 post.

Tierra Amarilla 1967

The images shared are from 1967 and were taken in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico when law enforcement and the New Mexico National Guard converged on the village in northern New Mexico to conduct a manhunt for individuals involved in a raid on the northern Rio Arriba County courthouse.  

The confrontation over land grants in New Mexico exploded in a hail of bullets nearly 55 years ago (this June 2023) when followers of the late activist and Chicano rights leader Reies López Tijerina stormed the Tierra Amarilla courthouse in a confrontation that resulted in the largest manhunt in New Mexico history and generated national attention.

Tijerina’s La Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal Alliance of Land Grants) group set out to free fellow members of the Alianzawho had been arrested days earlier.  They had also planned to make a citizen’s arrest of then-District Attorney Alfonso Sanchez.The raid left a New Mexico state police officer and jailer wounded and a village under lock down after the incident.

One image is of Santa Fe County Deputy Sheriff Eddie Armijo participating in a door-to-door search in the village with a New Mexico State Police Officer.  Other images are photos that attest to the tense scene on hand at the time of the incident. Other photos show Chicano rights leader Reies López Tijerina being escorted by a sheriff's deputy into the Santa Fe County Courthouse, in downtown Santa Fe, for a court hearing. Other photos include an image of New Mexico Guard troops in front of the Tierra Amarilla courthouse and an armored vehicle in the village.

Original source can be found here.