Utes to protest leaders' withdrawal of water monies

FORT DUCHESNE — Members of the Ute Indian Tribe who claim their leaders have kept them in the dark over plans to withdraw and spend $190 million in federal "water settlement funds" will protest Thursday in front of Salt Lake City's federal building.

"We want an accountability of the money, where it's going to go, what it's going to be used for," said Crystal Jenks, a 20-year tribal employee who claims she was fired because she refused to align herself with the tribe's financial adviser, John Jurrius.

"We have tried to get an appointment with Jurrius and the Business Committee, and we were refused. You can't have a difference of opinion without them calling security on you."

Jurrius said he couldn't comment without the approval of the Business Committee.

An attorney retained by tribal members who oppose the release of the funds maintains the government failed to follow its own rules by releasing the money prior to holding public hearings.

"The spirit and intent of the law is that tribal members will be informed about the investment plan for the money," said Sandy Hansen of Vernal. "I defy you to bring to me a tribal member who has a clue about what is going on."

According to Hansen, community meetings were anticipated by tribal members waiting to learn "how and why those funds will be invested," but that never materialized.

The recent release of the funds means the Ute Tribe Business Committee now has control over about $190 million to invest and manage as it chooses. The tribe's "water settlement funds" had been managed by the federal government's Washington, D.C., Office of Trust Funds Management (OTFM) on behalf of the eastern Utah Indian tribe at no cost.

The $190 million constitutes the bulk of the funds awarded to the tribe in the mid-1990s under the Central Utah Water Completion Act. The money is the Ute Tribe's compensation for the federal government's breach of a 1965 agreement in which the Utes deferred the development of certain lands so that the water from those lands could be used as part of the Central Utah Project's Bonneville Unit, which supplies water to the Wasatch Front.

The $190 million will be managed by the tribe's lay-member Venture Board, under the direction of Jurrius and his company, the Jurrius Group. The governing Business Committee appoints members to the Venture Board.