Mixed-blood Uintas plan letter campaign

ROOSEVELT — The attorney for hundreds of terminated mixed-blood Uinta Indians said his clients will launch a massive letter-writing campaign to "influential organizations and politicians" in order to promote their cause.

Dennis Chappabitty, San Bernardino, Calif., wants the letter writers to detail the wrongs of the 1954 Ute Partition Act and subsequent laws that removed 490 mixed-blood Uintas as members of the Ute Indian Tribe.

"I have seen the most despicable and venal attitudes directed toward my clients, a distinct racial group of Indians, by politicians . . . who have perpetuated one of the greatest frauds on the American public on par with Watergate and other great cover-ups," said Chappabitty.

He said his clients will also ask other nations to "pressure the United States government to clean up their own back yard before it points fingers at them for human rights abuses."

U.S. District Judge Richard W. Roberts recently dismissed a suit brought by former members of the Ute Indian Tribe whose names and the names of their children were removed from the tribe's official rolls in the mid-1950s.

Chappabitty said he will also appeal Roberts' decision and continues to review the dismissal order to identify the best way to reopen the door for another filing.

The terminated Uintas sought reinstatement as members of the Ute Indian Tribe. "Anyone who is happy about Judge Roberts' dismissal must understand that they are praising a genocidal federal law." Chappabitty said. "The Ute Partition Act has caused immense damage to the lives of generations of terminated Uintas."

The judge determined the statute of limitations had expired on their claims and said the latest they could have filed was in 1967. In his decision he wrote that he found no argument or evidence to lead him to grant an exemption and ignore the time limitation.

Chappabitty said Roberts' ruling has "stirred up a big hornet's nest" and he wants to call on people of influence to help his clients. "Out of all the tribes who were victims of the first wave of congressional termination bills, the Uintas remain as the only unrestored tribe," he said.

According to Chappabitty, possible congressional restoration of his clients is a "political hot potato" that no one is willing to touch. "When you trace out into whose hands the valuable land, minerals and water once owned by the terminated mixed-bloods went, you will understand."