Santa Clara Pueblo operates the Santa Claran Hotel in Espanola, New Mexico. Photo from Santa Clara Pueblo

Santa Clara Pueblo is accusing the city of Española, New Mexico, of trespassing on its reservation.

The tribe contends the city placed water and sewer lines on its land without consent. A $1 million payment has been requested, The Rio Grande Sun reported.

The city admits it installed the utility lines at issue but is refusing to pay up, arguing that the lines were placed on public roads, the paper said. The city also says the tribe and its businesses benefit from the utility services.

"The city is not going to pay money to the Pueblo for something it already has a right to, which is to place its utility lines in the public roads,” Frank Coppler, an attorney for the city, said in a letter to U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez, the paper reported. "The Pueblo missed its opportunity to negotiate something when the city was not in such financial straits."

Martinez's office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs entered the dispute on behalf of the tribe back in November 2013.

Get the Story:
City, Pueblo at Odds Over Lines (The Rio Grande Sun 10/1)

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