District IV

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, District IV encompasses all Indian Country located within New Mexico, Colorado, portions of Northern Arizona and Utah, and the Ysleta Del Sur pueblo located in west Texas. Headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the District serves 26 federally recognized Tribes including Navajo Nation, two Apache tribes, 20 Pueblos, and two Ute Tribes. Total Tribal enrollment is 364,881 with a large portion of the memberships living in urban cities like Albuquerque, Santa Fe, El Paso, Phoenix and Durango.

The command vision for the district operations is to provide strategic management, oversight, and technical assistance to BIA and Tribal law enforcement programs. This is achieved through partnership, resource sharing and training. District IV fosters a positive policing partnership with federal, state, and tribal organizations to seek optimal service to our Indian communities.

The following are Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, District IV Direct Service programs that are responsible for providing patrol and criminal investigations for tribal communities.

• Ute Mountain Ute Agency
• Mescalero Agency
• Southern Pueblos Agency
• Northern Pueblos Agency
• Laguna Criminal Investigation Unit
• Navajo Liaison Office (Gallup)

There is a total of 14,297,731 acres of reservation land in District IV, with nearly half being the Navajo Nation. Most of the reservation lands are in arid high desert environments covered with a variety of desert landscape and foliage. The Rio Grande River runs through or near most of the New Mexico pueblos and is the major source of agricultural water for the Indian communities. Other reservations like the Southern Ute Reservation of Colorado and the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico include more alpine forest areas.

The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation in the country and is roughly the same land mass as the state of West Virginia with a total area of approximately 17,000,000 acres or 26,606 square miles. The landscape varies from arid desert to alpine forests and extends through four states; Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah.

On all reservations in District IV the federal and tribal governments are the largest employers. Like most reservations in the United States the unemployment rate among the Tribes is well above the national average while the per capita average is far below at $10,793. The lowest per capita income is $4,839 and the highest at $18,552. Labor forces also vary, but remain under the national average. With a total population of 264,427 the total labor force is 86,972 or an average of 3,106 per Tribe. The various economies include timber, gaming, energy (i.e., oil, wind, etc.), livestock, tourism and artisan.

The following are Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, District IV Direct Service programs:

• Ute Mountain Ute Agency
• Mescalero Agency
• Southern Pueblos Agency
• Northern Pueblos Agency
• Laguna Criminal Investigation Unit
• Navajo Liaison Office (Gallup)

The other Tribal entities provide law enforcement services through a P.L. 93-638 contract, compact or operate independently without Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, funding. The District IV staff is responsible for working in partnership with our Tribal partners for monitoring, resource sharing and providing technical assistance to all programs within our district.

Reservations located in District IV include: Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, Mescalero Apache, Zuni Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, Santa Ana Pueblo, San Felipe Pueblo, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (Texas), Isleta Pueblo, Sandia Pueblo, Santo Domingo Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo, Pojoaque Pueblo, San Juan Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, Taos Pueblo, Cochiti Pueblo, Zia Pueblo, Nambe Pueblo, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Picuris Pueblo, Ramah-Navajo, Southern Ute (Colorado), Ute Mountain Ute (Colorado)