; ch. 539), that created the Court of Private Land Claims. (8) The established processes differed from State to State, and a history of problematic surveys and corruption may explain why there was so much acreage lost by community land grants and why so few survived into modern times as self-governing entities administering intact common lands. (9) Studies have concluded that for land grant communities and community members to survive in the non-cash economies prior to the mid-20th century, it was essential that they have access to the common land resources of their own private inholdings, which provided a complete resource base for successful small-scale family farming and stock-raising activities, upon which the local economy was based. (10) New Mexico’s community land grants, now known as land grant-mercedes, are an important part of the State’s culture and history and have been recognized under the Kearny Code of 1846 and subsequent territorial laws of New Mexico and New Mexico State law. (11) Article 2, section 5 of the constitution of New Mexico states, The rights, privileges and immunities, civil, political and religious guaranteed to the people of New Mexico by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo shall be preserved inviolate , providing powerful constitutional protection for the rights of the State’s land grant communities. (12) Water delivery systems known as acequias, or community ditches, are a centuries-old system used for water distribution, introduced to New Mexico by the Spanish in the 16th century, to allow for farming to sustain the needs of the community, creating a cultural landscape and way of life centered around local agriculture. (13) In New Mexico, acequias are governed by a centuries-old form of water governance, known as acequias, that are political subdivisions of the State and are composed of a board of private land owners that are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the acequias and for monitoring and administering surface water rights along the acequia. (14) In New Mexico,