MIXED-BLOOD UTES SEEK TRIBAL WATER RIGHTS
Published: Feb 2, 1996, 12:00 a.m. MST
By Deseret News
Attorneys representing various mixed-blood factions are filing federal court papers and other documents to ensure their clients have a voice when it comes to any decisions regarding water rights or water-related projects for the Ute Indian Tribe.
Earlier this month the governing tribal Business Committee approved a resolution to "oppose and counter any and all efforts by the mixed-bloods to . . . assert ownership of tribal lands, water, wildlife, minerals or money."In 1954 490 mixed-blood Utes were terminated from membership in the tribe as part of the Ute Termination Act. Through the subsequent Partition Act they were provided with their share of divisible tribal assets such as money and land, and also with 27 percent of the "net proceeds" not susceptible to equitable or practicable distribution.
While oil and gas resources, along with hunting and fishing rights, have typically been identified as nondivisible assets, mixed-bloods maintain water rights are also included.
Kent Higgins, an Idaho Falls attorney retained by a group of mixed-blood Utes, says the Termination Act clearly says water rights of mixed-bloods were preserved.
Higgins has filed a "request for mediation" of the terminated Utes' water rights to the Acting Committee on Indian Water Rights in Wash-ington, D.C. The effort is an attempt to mediate rather than litigate the issue, said Higgins.
"The Department of Interior recognizes the mixed-bloods' water right. Even though they haven't been addressed, they do exist."
Dora Van, president of Affiliated Ute Citizens, not only maintains that mixed-bloods have legal water rights but also believes the Ute Tribe is operating outside of federal law by not including mixed-bloods in water discussions.
"Unless the AUC representatives are consulted and invited to the meetings to discuss the water issues and jointly aid in the planning and plans being proposed to the tribe and by the Business Committee, we have every intention of filing an injunction," she said.
Tod Smith, the Ute Tribe water attorney, says the Affiliated Ute Citizens have "absolutely no role in the management" of any tribal assets. Furthermore, he says the tribe maintains mixed-bloods have no claim on water rights as one of their rightful assets.
The only legal entity established to manage the nondivisible assets of the terminated mixed-bloods is the Ute Distribution Corp., Smith explained. Ute Distribution Corp. was created in 1956 to act as an official clearinghouse for transactions pertaining to the tribe and the mixed-bloods.
Last April Ute Distribution Corp. filed a lawsuit of its own in an attempt to establish its claim to water rights for the mixed-bloods.
"We filed with the courts to clarify what water rights belong to who," said Chris Denver, Ute Distribution director. Denver said the corporation has received a response from the Business Committee.
Despite all of the controversy between the mixed-bloods and the tribe, discussions centering on the Upalco and Uintah Units of the Uintah Basin Replacement Project in Duchesne and Uintah Counties are still under way.
Under the Uintah Basin Replacement Project dams have been proposed for both Indian and non-Indian water storage on the reservation. The tribe must make a decision on whether or not they'll support the federal water projects by February of this year.