A onetime minister and traveling revivalist, REIES LOPEZ TIJERINA became involved in disputes over historical land grants and in 1963 founded militant Alianza Federal de las Mercedes (the Federal Land-Grant Alliance). In 1966, he and his followers briefly seized part of the Kit Carson National Forest. Subsequent incidents escalated into violence (including an armed raid by the Alianza in June 1967 on a new Mexico county courthouse), and Tijerina ultimately served prison time for state and federal offenses.