Silver City, New Mexico
Hundreds of citizens from New Mexico's Southwestern landscapes have come together to form the Heritage Waters Coalition at www.heritagewaters.org, to protect the heritage, history and landscape of the Gila River, its water and its lands. The mission of Heritage Waters Coalition is to educate our community to understand the risks they face in losing their traditional lifestyles and family heritage by depopulating our communities through political actions to allow Washington to control our water, our land and our liberties. Heritage Waters Coalition opposes S. 3670, the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild & Scenic River Act. S. 3670 ignores the voices of New Mexico's citizens who have lived, worked and cared for the rivers and lands of America's oldest Wilderness Area.
From the time the Mogollons roamed these mountains until today, the Gila River and its tributaries have been the lifeblood of the people of Southwest New Mexico. All who have spent their lives here have carefully worked these lands and used these precious waters and managed our environment to make the Gila River System one of the greatest places on earth. Now, special interest groups want unnamed Washington bureaucrats to manage our rivers, our water, and our heritage. In Grant County, three decades prior to New Mexico statehood, the Shelley family arrived on Mogollon Creek with 80 head of cattle and made a home out of raw wilderness. Their descendants are still ranching and caring for these lands today. The Kiehne family arrived in Catron County in 1884, and their descendants still work and live in the shadows of the Gila mountains.
Although their story is amazing, they are not entirely unique. The Gutierrez, Billings, Rice and Eby families of Grant County; the McKeen, Bustamante and Atwood families in Catron County; the Welty and Henderson families in Sierra County; the Hiatt, Swapp, Nunn and McSherry families of Luna County; the Anderson, Jones, Reynolds and Wright families of Hidalgo County, and many more, all share the same legacy. It is their voices that S.3670 ignores. Their history of caring for the Gila River and the lands it quenches are the reason this spectacular area draws international attention—not because these rivers or lands are in any threat.
The M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild & Scenic River Act is Washington overreach. The Gila River and its tributaries deserve protec+on, and they have it. The Gila and its tributaries flow through the world's first Wilderness Area of over 559,000 acres where no dams, no motorized vehicles, no roads, no development, or diversion of these rivers can occur. The families of Southwest New Mexico have embraced this Wilderness and helped protect it through responsible management of the lands they work. Wild and Scenic designa+ons provide no addi+onal protec+ons for the Gila but only serve as weapons to drive New Mexicans off these lands, losing our heritage, our history and our culture.
Protect New Mexico's water, land, and heritage. Join the voices of hundreds of Southwest New Mexico ci+zens by joining Heritage Water Coali+on's fight for the Gila River. Join us at
www.heritagewaters.org to make New Mexico's voices heard in Washington.