Nearly one hundred individual construction and upgrade projects on tribal lands in New Mexico are now in the planning stage because of a series of capital outlay requests approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
The projects, earlier submitted to the New Mexico State Legislature by the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department, are receiving a total of just over $68 million in state funding.
The biggest ticket item is seeing $6 million going for the construction of the Santo Domingo Pueblo wastewater system in northern Sandoval County. The pueblo, located between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, has a population of around 2,300 residents.
Exactly $4.5 million is slated for the construction of a new health facility that will belong to the Sandia Pueblo, also in Sandoval County, while $4 million is going to the building of a science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics preparatory school on Navajo Nation land in Sun Juan County.
Another $4 million is targeting construction of the Pojoaque Pueblo Eagle Ridge/Santa Fe Downs project Santa Fe County. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the project may eventually include the building of new housing, an amphitheater, and commercial space.
A $3.3 million outlay has also won approval for the building of a new wellness center that will belong to the Ohkay Owingeh pueblo in northern Rio Arriba County.
One of the smallest outlays, at $25,000, will target improvements to a youth center belonging to the Jicarilla Apache Nation, also in Rio Arriba County.
This year’s total New Mexico Indian Affairs Department capital outlays at $68 million was up from the $63.3 million approved by lawmakers and Governor Lujan Grisham last year.
March 26, 2026
By Garry Boulard
