'Mixed Bloods' seek Indian status

HEBER CITY — A small group of Utahns — descended from American Indians — is fighting a complex battle to win back rights they claim the United States government has taken from them.

The group is called Mixed Blood Uintas and during a lengthy meeting here Saturday with their lawyer, they discussed their plight and their strategy to win back their status after the federal government "terminated" them as Indians beginning with the Ute Partition Act of 1954. Termination means a person is no longer recognized by the federal government as an Indian.

The Mixed Bloods filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court last fall in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to reclaim their status as Indians. Their lawyer, Dennis G. Chappabitty, a Comanche who practices Indian law in Sacramento, Calif., told about 50 people at Saturday's meeting that their case is one of the last remaining injustices in America.

The whole Ute Tribe was targeted for termination, he said, but the full-blooded Utes went to Congress and got their termination stopped. One of the issues for Chappabitty, he said, is that from 1954-1961, 490 mixed blood Uintas were terminated — unable to keep their lands and other rights.

The idea behind termination, Chappabitty said, was to sever individual Indians from a relationship with the federal government and make them self-sustaining. However, by not allowing them to keep their lands and their livelihoods, the government has further impoverished the Indians by not fully implementing the Ute Partition Act, he said.

The federal government has filed a motion for dismissal of the lawsuit and Chappabitty has until Sept. 15 to answer. The government says the tribe itself helped write the act, and the tribe itself asked for termination of mixed blood members.

Oranna Felter, Roosevelt, plaintiff in the lawsuit, said at the time of termination, 260 children were the majority of the 490 people terminated, and didn't vote for termination. She wants to see recognition restored for the 490 former tribe members and their descendents along with their lands and water.

LaJean Richman, Neola, said of her seven siblings, only she and one sister are enrolled on tribal records and recognized as Uintas. "This has created problems with other kids wondering why they have not had the same privileges," she said.

"I want recognition for the other six. We're all from the same family."