The
state Supreme Court unanimously made the decision Monday after hearing from
lawyers in the case.
Tribal chairman Jeff Haozous told reporters after the
ruling that state recognition will give the Apaches a "seat at the
table" with New Mexico's other 22 tribes and pueblos. The governor must
invite the tribe to a yearly tribal-state summit. The federal government
designated a 30-acre parcel in southern New Mexico
as the tribe's reservation in 2011, but the Apache governmental offices are in Oklahoma
There's a
restaurant and smoke shop on the land near Deming, but tribal efforts to open a
casino have been blocked.
The tribe acquired the land in 1998.
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