Who owns the land?


Interesting documentary but I was left wondering who owns the land these people are living on? Is it just some guy that bought it a long time ago and said, "hey, whoever wants to live here go right ahead" or is it just wilderness owned by the government and the government doesn't really care (unless they are growing weed of course)?

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I'm not positive of the exact location of this "community", but I know about the general area. It is located outside of Taos NM. Back in the 60's the land was purchased in big chunks and then subdivided into "developments". I use the word loosely, because what it actually was, was a con game. The developer bought the land, had a surveyor draw up a plat map of lots or acreages and then sell them through magazine ads talking about how great the land was. What buyers found was desert scrub brush and lots that hadn't been surveyed, so they couldn't tell where their land actually was. There is no electricity, no city water or sewer lines, just miles of scrub brush and really bad dirt roads. Most of the land now is owned by the county, seized for failure to pay taxes, or by crooks who buy it and resell it on ebay to unsuspecting out of state buyers.

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I also wondered the same thing. I was quite impressed with the way the elders took care of business and the place of honor given to women. I truly hope they aren't driven off that land. They just want to live without government interference.

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