DWR and Ute officials try to sort out impact of jurisdiction ruling

However, that may well be the last thing on the minds of state prosecutors. Instead, they are preparing to defend against the high court's assertion that millions of acres within the "exterior reservation" — or the land outside of about 1.2 million acres recognized as held "in trust" for the Ute Tribe by the federal government — also falls under the tribe's jurisdiction.

"We are saying that this (appellate court ruling) is incorrect under U.S. Supreme Court law," Slotnik said. "The Ute Tribe is not the victim. The tribe doesn't have regulatory authority over non-Indians hunting on non-trust land. The tribe doesn't have a property interest in the deer."

The Ute Tribe filed a friend of the court brief with the court of appeals on Reber's enrollment status, maintaining that Reber is not a federally recognized Indian and has no right to claim hunting privileges as such.

Mike Humiston, Reber's attorney, said the appeals court is obligated by case law to rule they way it did. According to Humiston, the court simply complied with a 1997 10th Circuit Court ruling that gave the Ute Tribe jurisdiction over everything within the "exterior boundaries" of its original Uintah Valley Reservation, minus homestead land (such as the city of Roosevelt). What that means, he said, is that there are tribal trust lands and homestead land, period.

"There is no act of Congress that created exterior lands . . . there is no such thing," he said. "All along I have said that Rick is a Uintah band member who was hunting on 'tribal' trust land."

Prosecutors in Uintah and Duchesne counties are holding off on filing new cases involving hunting violations pending the outcome of the legal wrangling. At the same time, Ute Tribe wildlife and DWR officials are beginning to sort out the potential impacts of the ruling.

With the dispute possibly playing out in the legal arena for years to come, Christophersen wants to make it clear the ruling has not created a law enforcement no man's land.

DWR officers are cross-deputized to act as federal officers under the jurisdiction of U.S. Fish and Wildlife, he said, and the DWR is continuing to manage the land and wildlife. But he admits they are anxiously awaiting answers.

"It has major ramifications for us as far as law enforcement and as far as management of permits for elk and deer," Christophersen said.

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