Man's tribal status key to hunting case

VERNAL — The Utah Court of Appeals has taken under advisement a hunting and fishing rights dispute of a man who maintains he is Native American.

"First, they have to decide what they are going to rule, second, how they are going to write it. They are establishing a precedent," said Mike Humiston, the Heber City attorney known for championing the cause of mixed-blood clients in cases involving Native American treaty rights.

According to Humiston, the case centers on the treaty rights that Rick Reber, 53, claims to hold as a member of the Uintah band of Indians, and over jurisdictional authority. Reber's case should be prosecuted in federal not state court, said Humiston.

The state contends the violation occurred in Uintah County within the boundaries of the Ute Indian Reservation — or in "Indian Country," but not on tribal trust land, and falls within state jurisdiction.

"The bulk of the hearing focused on whether or not it was Indian land," said Humiston.

Utah Assistant Attorney General Joanne Slotnik said the case revolves around whether or not Reber is an Indian in the eyes of the law, not whether he holds any treaty rights.

"It's a two-step analysis — was it in Indian country? If the answer is yes, then the next question you ask is, is the person who was hunting without a state license an Indian? If he is not Indian, then he is going to be prosecuted by the state," she said.

Humiston alleges that when Reber's case went to trial in 8th District Court in Vernal in 2004, the Box Elder County resident wasn't given a chance to put on a defense because Judge Lynn Payne said witnesses the defense intended to call were not relevant. The appellate judges could uphold the trial court ruling — that Reber is a non-Indian illegally hunting on state land — and sustain Reber's conviction, they could rule the state lacks jurisdiction and dismiss the conviction, or they could find that Reber was denied due process of law and remand the case back to 8th District Court for a new trial.

Reber was charged in 2002 for hunting in the Book Cliffs in Uintah County without a permit. He maintains that because of his Native American heritage — he is one-sixteenth Uintah Indian — he didn't need one. Although Reber's mother, a Uintah band member, was terminated from enrollment in the Ute Indian Tribe when he was a toddler, he was born prior to termination, and his name has never appeared on terminated rolls.

"There has never been a federal ruling that says because your mother is terminated . . . you are terminated," said Humiston.