ABSTRACT
Indians living on the reservation do not pay tax, and, unreliable as tax returns may be, they at least provide a helpful guide. Sufficient information was gathered, however, to enable to determine the relative size of the fields held by members of the same family and by the heads of different households. In 1593 it was ordained that tides to land be formally given to the Indians, The land was to be given not to an Indian chief or individually to Indian residents, but to the community of Indians as a whole. It has been said that the purpose of this measure was to maintain the traditional Indian social system; but this grant system was applied throughout the Spanish colonies irrespective of existing systems of land tenure. The rights over a territory to which each Indian community was entitled according to the law of 1593 are not absolute. The community may not sell, pledge, or mortgage the land.
