Returning the Land of Cuyamungue
to Ancestral Stewardship
Honoring the Vision of Dr. Felicitas Goodman –
A Historic Transition of Sacred Land
by Paul Robear, President/Executive Director, Cuyamungue Institute

-> RELATED ARTICLE: CUYA: the New Home of the Institute, Sedona, AZ

There are moments in life when a transition feels larger than any one organization, individual, or generation.

For the Cuyamungue Institute, the return of 470 acres of ancestral Cuyamungue homeland to the Pueblo of Pojoaque represents such a moment — one rooted in stewardship, deep gratitude, cultural respect, and the enduring spirit of the land itself.

After more than five decades of caring for this extraordinary landscape, the Cuyamungue Institute has completed the transfer of the historic Cuyamungue property to the Pueblo of Pojoaque in what has become a landmark land-back and conservation effort in northern New Mexico.

This transition marks far more than the closing of a real estate transaction.

It represents the return of ancestral land to Indigenous stewardship, the continuation of ecological protection, and the honoring of a vision first carried forward by the Institute’s founder, the late anthropologist and consciousness researcher Felicitas D. Goodman.

Dr. Felicitas Goodman purchased 278 acres in 1964 and later established the Cuyamungue Institute in 1978 as a center devoted to the exploration of consciousness research, ritual body postures, and humanity’s ancient relationship with the sacred. From the beginning, she recognized something profoundly unique about this land – not only its natural beauty and ecological importance, but also its deep spiritual presence and historical significance within the Pojoaque Valley. In 2014, the Institute’s Board of Directors acquired an additional 192 acres to further support the long-term preservation of the land and continuation of the Institute’s mission.

Since Dr. Goodman’s passing in 2005, the current Directors and Board of the Institute have worked for more than two decades to continue both her teachings and her stewardship of the land. During that time, Cuyamungue remained protected as a place of contemplation, research, ecological preservation, and direct transformative experience. The continuation of this care across the past 21 years has helped preserve the integrity of the land until its return to ancestral Pueblo stewardship could finally unfold.

For decades, the Institute quietly served as steward of this landscape while much of the surrounding region experienced increasing commercial and residential development. Throughout those years, the land remained protected as a place of learning, contemplation, ceremony, healing, and relationship with the natural world.

On behalf of the Institute’s Board of Directors and our global community, we feel deeply honored to have been entrusted with preserving the ecological and spiritual integrity of this remarkable place for future generations.

In many ways, this transition feels both deeply emotional and profoundly appropriate.

The Pueblo of Pojoaque’s ancestral relationship with Cuyamungue reaches back centuries beyond recorded history. Long before colonial settlement, this region formed part of an interconnected Indigenous cultural landscape shaped by Pueblo agriculture, ceremonial life, trade, migration, and community. Please join us in celebrating the return of this land to the Pueblo of Pojoaque with deep respect and heartfelt goodwill. We believe the land is returning to ancestral stewardship in a way that honors both its ancient history and its future protection.

We are truly humbled  to be a part of a larger movement unfolding across the United States — one in which Indigenous communities are reclaiming ancestral homelands through collaboration, conservation partnerships, and shared commitment to cultural and ecological preservation.

We extend our heartfelt appreciation to Tai Bixby and Jacob Rocker of REA | Real Estate Advisors, who approached this process with extraordinary care and sensitivity to the historical, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of the land. And  to Western Rivers Conservancy for their essential role in helping make this transition possible. Their dedication to river conservation and tribal land return initiatives throughout the American West provided critical support, vision, and partnership throughout this process.

Throughout this journey, we have often reflected on Dr. Goodman’s original vision for Cuyamungue. She understood sacred practice not as an escape from the world, but as a way of entering into deeper relationship with life — with nature, spirit, community, and the hidden dimensions of human consciousness. The land itself became part of that teaching. For thousands of participants from around the world who visited the Institute over the decades, Cuyamungue offered a rare environment of silence, reflection, healing, and direct experience.

Sacred places have a way of continuing to teach us, even through change. And perhaps one of the deepest teachings of all is remembering that true stewardship ultimately means knowing when to listen to the land itself — and allowing it to return home. While this transition marks the closing of one chapter in the Institute’s physical history upon this land, it also opens the doorway to a new phase of our work and mission.

The teachings, research, workshops, and global community that grew from Dr. Goodman’s work continues in new ways. The spirit of the Institute has never resided solely in buildings or geography, but within the shared commitment to cultivating presence, expanded awareness, sacred relationship, and compassionate human transformation. 

“On behalf of the Cuyamungue Institute’s Board of Directors and our global community, we are honored to have been entrusted with preserving the ecological and spiritual integrity of this extraordinary place. In continuing Dr. Felicitas Goodman’s work and her vision of Cuyamungue as a place of learning, healing, and sacred relationship with the natural world, we feel the return of these ancestral lands to the Pueblo of Pojoaque is both meaningful and fitting. We are grateful to have been part of this historic transition.” — Paul Robear, President/Executive Director

As we continue the Institute’s work with renewed vigor and vision, we do so with immense gratitude for all who have supported the Institute through the years — our teachers, workshop participants, researchers, friends, community members, and all those whose lives were touched by this work. We look forward to welcoming those we will soon meet, as well as future generations to come, as we continue to share our story in new ways, new venues, online and in person at our new Sedona HQ. In doing so, we honor Dr. Goodman’s most enduring legacy and gifts to the world. 

-> RELATED ARTICLE: CUYA: the New Home of the Institute, Sedona, AZ