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.

Many of the mixed-blood Uintas quickly found themselves even without the financial support they were given upon termination because they didn't understand how to manage their assets and money. In numerous cases, they were duped out of their cash and land holdings by non-Indians eager to take advantage of their lack of financial acumen, said Felter.

The lawsuit filed by Chappabitty on behalf of the terminated Utes charges that the U.S. government, acting through the BIA, incorrectly implemented the Ute Partition Act.

The complaint also charges that the federal government "grossly mismanaged and continues to grossly mismanage their interest in monies derived from the disposition of settlement funds earmarked and targeted for distribution to them arising from a $32 million Indian Claims Commission judgment."

The 650 plaintiffs in the case are seeking an accounting of these funds, said Chappabitty.

"They are charging the defendants with losing those funds and, thus, denying them and their children of the benefit of these judgment monies," he said.

The plaintiffs whose names are listed in the lawsuit include the original 490 terminated Utes and their family members, who come from throughout Utah, Oklahoma, Idaho, Nevada and California.

Felter was an 11-year-old living in Fort Duchesne, Uintah County, when her parents signed termination papers on her behalf. It was a stroke of the pen that would change her life and the life of her family forever, she said.

"All my friends were 'full-bloods.' We ran around together, went to school together, ate together, played together. Then all of a sudden everybody stopped running around with all of us 'mixed bloods.' I had to change my whole life and it's never stopped."

Felter has personally been helping lead the fight for reinstatement for 32 years. It's a fight that has cost plaintiffs "tens and thousands of dollars," all raised through individual donations.

In the history of U.S. Indian policies, the mixed-blood Uinta Utes are the only group within a tribe to be targeted for termination. Typically, it was an entire tribe that was terminated. All tribes that were terminated have since been reinstated, leaving the mixed-blood Uinta Utes as the only terminated people who have not yet regained their status as Native Americans.

"Termination is really a mixed-up mess. That's probably why we were the first and last ones ever done," said Felter.

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