Terminated Utes put faith in lawsuit

ROOSEVELT — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to rule shortly on a federal lawsuit filed last spring by former members of the Northern Ute Indian Tribe who say their "divorce" from the tribe should be reversed.

Some 500 disenfranchised Uinta Utes are seeking reinstatement of their legal designation as members of the eastern Utah tribe.

The issue dates back to the Ute Partition Act of 1954. In theory, all Native Americans in the country were eventually supposed to be terminated, or no longer be wards of the federal government, in a quest to make them blend into America's melting pot.

The termination of all Indian tribes was to be complete by 1961, but the federal plan stalled, and in 1971 President Richard Nixon completely withdrew the termination act.

The 490 Utes, the first — and, as it turned out, the only — group to be terminated from membership in the Ute Tribe, were targeted for termination based on their blood quantum, which had to be at least 50 percent Ute Indian.

Those who failed the blood test were stripped of their identity along with additional land and mineral rights that rightfully belonged to them, said Whiterocks resident Calvin Hackford, who is an original terminated Uinta band member.

Under the Ute Partition Act, which was referred to as a "bill of divorcement," the 490 Uinta Utes were to be given a portion of the assets held by the Ute Tribe. Those assets included grazing rights and income from non-distributable assets such as oil, gas and minerals.

Of the 490 terminated Uinta Utes, 260 were children. If any of the mixed-blood Uintas had fully understood the enormous ramifications of the agreement, they never would have signed their names to the bill of divorcement 50 years ago, said Oranna Felter, a Roosevelt resident who was just 11 at the time her life changed forever.

Sacramento-based Indian law attorney Dennis Chappabitty said the "termination in and of itself was not voluntary at all; it was full of defects, it was full of smoke and mirrors. It was a railroad job, and they (the federal government) hold it out as being voluntary."

Chappabitty, who is Apache and Comanche, was hired by the approximately 500 plaintiffs — some among the 490 originally terminated, some descendants — who each have their individual contract with him.

In addition to having their status as members of a federally recognized Indian tribe reinstated, the terminated Uintas are seeking payment from the federal government of $3 million each.