County”. The law was a formal apology, but tact onto the bill was a provision that the law would take effect 60 days after enactment. In this time another 350 conveyances took place. The laws were declared unconstitutional and repealed, but the damage was already done. The Tigua had lost their land. To address claims that these acquisitions were just normal business it is necessary to point out again that an Indian can not sell land that is being held in trust by the state. The only land that an Indian could sell he land that he himself had purchased. Therefore, all the transfers of property made of land that belonged within the original grant were illegal. They were made by individuals who had no right to sell them. Furthermore, the people who purchased the land made and illegal purchase. Considering the fact that most of the names that appear on the titles are land dealers, the suggestion of fraud is overwhelming. Land dealers surely would have known the law. This does not completely clear up the question of whether or Fountain’s ‘ring’ was involved in a conspiracy. Upon looking at further evidence, however, it is all but impossible to deny. S.H. Newman, a newspaperman, had made these observations of El Paso in 1876. He was impressed by the vision the townspeople had of “a Great Day coming when the railroad would arrive and untold riches would reward the faithful…” At this time Ben Dowell, Joseph Tays, and Colonel Zabriskie had already accumulated considerable acres of land in anticipation of the coming railroad. Newman later wrote, “I can remember how the same Colonel Zabriskie pointed out the exact spot where the railroad would cross the Rio Grande, and I smiled and accused him of drawing upon his imagination. Years afterward when the Southern Pacific Railroad Company built its bridge above the city I smiled again and in imagination took of my hat to Colonel Zabriskie. It was the exa...
