SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – The Cochiti Pueblo have acquired 9,000 acres of ancestral land as part of a deal made with New Mexico officials and a longtime Santa Fe family.

The tribe purchased 2.7 acres on the Old Santa Fe Trail specifically for the land swap. The pueblos traded the land they bought from the Catron family to the State Land Office in exchange for thousands of acres of state trust land near Cochiti.

Papers were signed at the Land Office on Thursday.

The Cochiti Pueblo people have been trying to reclaim the land for half a century. It was important to their forefathers, who migrated from the Bandelier area to the fertile Rio Grande Valley.

The transfer could also lead to the redevelopment of the historic hotel on the Old Santa Fe Trail.