Constitution of New Mexico (2025 publisher edition) — ARTICLE XXI

Publisher edition notice: This collection preserves the complete Secretary of State's 2025 compilation, identifying amendments through 2024, including the publisher's source notes and annotations. Later amendments have not been independently verified.

ARTICLE XXI

ARTICLE XXI Compact with the United States Sec. 1. Religious toleration; polygamy. 2. Control of unappropriated or Indian lands; taxation of federal government, nonres- ident and Indian property. 3. Assumption of territorial debts.

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192© 2025 State of New Mexico. New Mexico Compilation Commission. All rights reserved. Article XXI – Compact with the United States Sec. 4. Public schools. 5. Suffrage. 6. Capital. 7. Reclamation projects. 8. Allotted Indian lands subject to federal li- quor control. 9. Consent to Enabling Act provisions. 10. Compact irrevocable. 11. Consent to exchange of lands. Section 1. [Religious toleration; polygamy.] Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of this state shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship. Polygamous or plural marriages and polygamous cohabitation are forever prohibited. (As amended Septem- ber 15, 1953.) Sec. 2. [Control of unappropriated or Indian lands; taxation of federal government, nonresident and Indian property.] The people inhabiting this state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated and

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193© 2025 State of New Mexico. New Mexico Compilation Commission. All rights reserved. Article XXI – Compact with the United States ungranted public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said boundaries owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, the right or title to which shall have been acquired through the United States, or any prior sovereignty; and that until the title of such Indian or In- dian tribes shall have been extinguished the same shall be and remain subject to the dis- position and under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the congress of the United States; and that the lands and other property belonging to citizens of the United States re- siding without this state shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the lands and other property belonging to residents thereof; that no taxes shall be imposed by this state upon lands or property therein belonging to or which may hereafter be acquired by the United States or reserved for its use; but nothing herein shall preclude this state from taxing as other lands and property are taxed, any lands and other property outside of an Indian reservation, owned or held by any Indian, save and except such lands as have been granted or acquired as aforesaid, or as may be granted or confirmed to any Indian or Indians under any act of congress; but all such lands shall be exempt from taxation by

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194© 2025 State of New Mexico. New Mexico Compilation Commission. All rights reserved. Article XXI – Compact with the United States this state so long and to such extent as the congress of the United States has prescribed or may hereafter prescribe. Sec. 3. [Assumption of territorial debts.] The debts and liabilities of the territory of New Mexico and the debts of the coun- ties thereof, which were valid and subsist- ing on the twentieth day of June, nineteen hundred and ten, are hereby assumed and shall be paid by this state; and this state shall, as to all such debts and liabilities, be subrogated to all the rights, including rights of indemnity and reimbursement, existing in favor of said territory or of any of the several counties thereof on said date. Nothing in this article shall be construed as validating or in any manner legalizing any territorial, county, municipal or other bonds, warrants, obligations or evidences of indebtedness of, or claims against, said territory or any of the counties or munici- palities thereof which now are or may be, at the time this state is admitted, invalid and illegal; nor shall the legislature of this state pass any law in any manner validating or legalizing the same.

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195© 2025 State of New Mexico. New Mexico Compilation Commission. All rights reserved. Article XXI – Compact with the United States Sec. 4. [Public schools.] Provision shall be made for the establish- ment and maintenance of a system of pub- lic schools which shall be open to all the children of the state and free from sectarian control, and said schools shall always be conducted in English. Sec. 5. [Suffrage.] This state shall never enact any law re- stricting or abridging the right of suffrage on account of race, color or previous con- dition of servitude. (As amended Novem- ber 5, 1912.) Sec. 6. [Capital.] The capital of this state shall, until changed by the electors voting at an election provided for by the legislature of this state for that purpose, be at the city of Santa Fe, but no such election shall be called or pro- vided for prior to the thirty-first day of De- cember, nineteen hundred and twenty-five. Sec. 7. [Reclamation projects.] There are hereby reserved to the United States, with full acquiescence of the people

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196© 2025 State of New Mexico. New Mexico Compilation Commission. All rights reserved. Article XXI – Compact with the United States of this state, all rights and powers for the carrying out of the provisions by the United States of the act of congress, entitled, "An act appropriating the receipts from the sale and disposal of public lands in certain states and territories to the construction of irrigation works for the reclamation of arid lands," approved June seventeenth, nine- teen hundred and two, and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, to the same extent as if this state had remained a territory. Sec. 8. [Allotted Indian lands subject to federal liquor control.] Whenever hereafter any of the lands contained within Indian reservations or al- lotments in this state shall be allotted, sold, reserved or otherwise disposed of, they shall be subject for a period of twenty-five years after such allotment, sale, reservation or other disposal, to all the laws of the United States prohibiting the introduction of liquor into the Indian country; and the terms "In- dian" and "Indian country" shall include the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and the lands owned or occupied by them on the twentieth day of June, nineteen hundred and ten, or

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197© 2025 State of New Mexico. New Mexico Compilation Commission. All rights reserved. Article XXI – Compact with the United States which are occupied by them at the time of the admission of New Mexico as a state. Sec. 9. [Consent to Enabling Act provisions.] This state and its people consent to all and singular the provisions of the said act of congress, approved June twentieth, nine- teen hundred and ten, concerning the lands by said act granted or confirmed to this state, the terms and conditions upon which said grants and confirmations were made and the means and manner of enforcing such terms and conditions, all in every re- spect and particular as in said act provided. Sec. 10. [Compact irrevocable.] This ordinance is irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of this state, and no change or abrogation of this ordinance, in whole or in part, shall be made by any constitutional amendment without the consent of congress. Sec. 11. [Consent to exchange of lands.] This state and its people consent to the provisions of the act of congress, approved

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198© 2025 State of New Mexico. New Mexico Compilation Commission. All rights reserved. Article XXII – Schedule June 15, 1926, providing for such exchanges and the governor and other state officers men- tioned in said act are hereby authorized to ex- ecute the necessary instrument or instruments to effect the exchange of lands therein pro- vided for with the government of the United States; provided that in the determination of values of the lands now owned by the state of New Mexico, the value of the lands, the timber thereon and mineral rights pertaining thereto shall control the determination of value. The legislature may enact laws for the carrying out of the provisions hereof in accordance here- with. (As added November 8, 1932.)