ROOSEVELT — It's been three years since a federal court judge took a case under advisement that could change the course of life for some 650 descendants of the Uinta Band of Ute Indians.

Actually, the mixed-blood Uintas — or "terminated Utes," as they are also called — have been wondering about their future for more than 50 years now. They want the judge to answer if a law passed by Congress 51 years ago, which stripped 27 percent of Ute Tribe members of their status as Native Americans based on their blood quantum, is legal.

The judge's ruling could determine if they will be reinstated as members of the Northern Ute Indian Tribe.

In 1954, the Ute Partition Act severed the membership in the Ute Indian Tribe for 490 mixed-blood Uinta Utes. More than half of them were children. A case filed in federal court in November 2002 seeks to cancel that termination. The U.S. government filed in 2003 to dismiss the claims of the terminated Utes.

"We have heard absolutely nothing. Our people are dying off. We were terminated in 1954; the babies in our case are in their early 50s now," said Roosevelt resident Oranna Felter, the lead plaintiff in Felter, et al. vs. Norton, et al. "We are all old. We want to get something done."

The mixed-blood Uintas were holding a meeting Saturday at the Utah State University Uintah Basin campus in Roosevelt to be updated on the latest details in their case by their California attorney, Dennis G. Chappabitty.

"There's been activity in our case and he wants to let the people know what's going on," said Felter.

The latest development was notifying the federal judge over the case that the 90-day period to rule on the government's motion to dismiss the Uinta band's case has long passed. The government's motion to dismiss was filed in November 2003.

"No one can go down into the judge's chambers and pound on his desk and demand that he render his decision right now, that's just not the way it works," Chappabitty said. "The notice that has been filed is proof that we are doing our best to remind Judge (Richard W.) Roberts that we believe his decision is long overdue."

According to Chappabitty, there is no proof in the historical record that the mixed-blood Uintas ever voluntarily agreed to their termination at a legally conducted meeting held under the Ute Tribe's Constitution.

"Officials of the Bureau of Indian Affairs told Congress that the mixed-blood has knowing and voluntarily voted to end their status as federally recognized Indians," he said.

In the process of termination, the government gave each of the mixed-blood Uintas money, property and 10 shares of stock in Ute Distribution Corporation, which was formed to manage indivisible assets such as oil, gas and mineral rights. At the same time they lost much more than they gained: their identity as members of the Ute Tribe, medical benefits they had come to depend on, and friends.