San Ildefonso Pueblo is one hurdle away from regaining 7,120 acres of ancestral lands in the Jemez Mountains from the Santa Fe National Forest.

Forest Supervisor Daniel Jiron announced Tuesday his decision to move forward with the transfer. The public now has 45 days to appeal the decision, though the exact date of the appeal deadline was not clear. The land is being returned under the 1951 federal Indian Claims Act.

"There's been so many hurdles we had to overcome to have this land returned. I'm looking forward to it," said Perry Martinez, a former governor of the pueblo.

The land is a rectangle shape parcel abutting Los Alamos County's eastern border, north past Forest Road 446 and east to adjoin existing pueblo lands.

San Ildefonso Pueblo will buy the land back for about $3.1 million. Money for the purchase will come from the $6.9 million in damages set aside by Congress in a U.S. Treasury fund under the 2006 law that approved the land transfer.

San Ildefonso Pueblo Gov. Leon T. Roybal did not return a call to his office for comment.

The transfer deal also includes 750 acres of Forest Service land to Santa Clara Pueblo for $310,000, and 895 acres to Los Alamos County at an as yet undetermined market value.

The land for Los Alamos includes some of the county's water wells.

Lands transferred to the pueblos will be closed to public access, but private property owners will still be able to access their property.

Martinez said as far as he knows San Ildefonso is the first tribe to have land returned under the Indian Claims Act.

"Other tribes were offered only money. Our tribal leadership has always said land is the most important," Martinez said. "Our people go out and pay their respects. It is our church."

He said the pueblo had to give up a lot of claims to land elsewhere as part of the deal to get the Santa Fe National Forest parcel returned. "We had to deal with Bandelier National Monument, the Bureau of Land Management, Los Alamos Laboratory, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe County," he said.

Martinez said many tribal leaders had worked to make the land exchange happen, even when some within the pueblo felt they were giving up too much in the deal.

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Energy transferred another 2,100 acres of lands in the Jemez back to San Ildefonso Pueblo.

Martinez said the land will be used as it has traditionally for hunting and gathering materials for ceremonies and pottery.

He said the pueblo has lost many sacred sites already to development. "We wanted to protect these lands," he said.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.