Public Law 91-550, 84 Stat. 1437 (Blue Lake, Pueblo de Taos)

Public Law 91-550, 84 Stat. 1437, enacted by the United States Congress in 1970, is the actual statutory text returning Blue Lake and 48,000 surrounding acres of the Carson National Forest to Taos Pueblo, ending a sixty-four year federal dispute over land the Pueblo holds as the sacred site where its origin narrative locates humanity's emergence and where its members conduct closed ceremonial pilgrimage. Its strength is that it is the primary legal instrument itself, verifiable against the Government Publishing Office's own text, and its passage is independently documented as one of the first major returns of federal land specifically on religious grounds. Its limit is that the statute records the legal transfer, not the religious history or ceremonial content of Blue Lake, both of which are held closed by Taos Pueblo itself, so it should not be cited for any claim beyond the fact and terms of the land's return.