Oranna Bumgarner Felter
"RedWillow"
Lead Plaintiff
Oranna Bumgarner Felter was born in 1944, during the height of world war Two, on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation located in the Northeastern corner of Utah near the Wyoming and Colorado borders. She was the third child of Samuel (Sam), a United States Marine at that time, and Elizabeth (Liz) Bumgarner. Besides Oranna, Liz and Sam also had two sons and two Daughters.
Oranna's Father was a handsome Cherokee and Choctaw Indian from Porum, Oklahoma. Her Mother was a leader of the mixed-blood Uinta's in the 1940's and 1950's. Oranna's Grandparents on her Mothers side was Oran Curry, half Ute and Della (Harris) Curry an Indian of mixed Indian decent. Her Great-Grandparents was Henry E. Harris a Full-blood Northern Piaute from Nevada and Mary (Reed) Harris a Uinta of mixed white and Shoshone parents. Her Grandfather Oran Curry was a member of the Uncompahgre Band of Ute Indian's; Liz, Della, Henry and Mary were all members of the Uinta Band.
As a child Oranna was brought up in the beliefs, Traditions, and Customs of the Uinta Band of Ute Indians. She grew up on the Reservation in Ft. Duchesne and attended school at Alterra, Todd, located on Indian Bench and Union High School in Roosevelt, Utah. She spent her childhood not only in Ft. Duchesne but also in the hills and valleys of the Majestic snow capped Uinta Mountains, where her Grandpa Curry was a Tribal Game Warden and a Forest Ranger. These were the happiest days of her life. Her memories of those days are as numerous as the hairs on the winter coat of the sleeping Bear.
At the young age of 17, Oranna fell in love and married Bert D. Moosman a good looking man from Whiterocks, Utah. Oranna and Bert had two girls, Kimberlee and Mitzi. In 1976 Bert was tragically killed in a work related accident. One year later Oranna's life took a turn for the better when she met, fell in love with, and married Dee Felter who Oranna had know from high school. Today Oranna and Dee have three children, Oranna's two Daughters and Dee's son Isaac, eight Grandchildren and three Great-Grandchildren. Both Oranna and Dee feel they've been blessed and will celebrate 30 years of Marriage this coming April 2007.
With the passage of the Ute Partition Act in 1954, Oranna's life she loved as a child was suddenly turned upside down. Her and her people’s way of life was taken from them and destroyed and she has had to endure the tragedies that followed.
Because of the guidance and love she received as a child. Her core values and beliefs in the Creator, the customs and Traditions of her people have never left her. It is these values and beliefs that have made her who she is today. The beating of the sacred Drum still beats loudly in her heart. The Spirits of her Ancestors surrounds her with their love and makes her strong.
With this strength she has become a Warrior mounted on a mighty war pony. That war pony now carries this great Warrior, who the Spirit’s call “Redwillow.”
WHY A LAWSUIT ?
To regain what was taken away illegally!
"NOTICE" This is not a class action or group lawsuit!
On November 4, 2002 a Civil Rights Lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Titled "Felter, et al, -vs- Norton, el al," Case #1:02CV2156. By Oranna B. Felter, Calvin Hackford, Alvin Richardson Denver, Jens Dale Christensen and over 250 other individually named persons.
Richard Curry, Lead Plaintiff Oranna B. Felter and Cal Hackford
This case is now in it's eighth year without any relief in sight. It has gone thru three title changes since 2002, "Felter V. Norton, Felter V. Kempthorne, and now Felter V. Salazar.
This complaint charges that the United States Government, acting through the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, willfully, incorrectly, and unlawfully implemented the "Ute Partition Act," a federal law enacted in 1954. This law purportedly "terminated" the federally recognized "Indian" status of each named plaintiff as members of the Uinta Band of Ute's.
The Ute Partition Act's original intention was that the Bands of the Ute Indians, "the Uinta's, Uncompagre's, and Whiteriver's" would have the federal recognition as Indians stripped from them. The Plaintiffs claim the through deft political maneuvering with members of Congress, officials of the Department of the Interior, and Bureau of Indian Affairs, that the Uncompagre and Whiteriver Bands were not terminated which has left them as the sole residents of the Uinta Band's Homelands.
One glaring aspect of the extinguishment of the Plaintiff's status as federally recognized members of the Uinta Band of Utes is that the United States Congress enacted a law along racial blood lines, classifying the Plaintiffs as "mixed blood" Utes possessing no more then 50% Ute Indian Blood, while classifying the members of the Uncompagre and Whiteriver Bands, which were originally from the state of Colorado, as "full blood" Utes. Only through this forced "branding" of the plaintiff's as "mixed blood" has the Government been able to successfully strip them of their tribal identity and turn over to others (non-Indians,) their homelands and billions of dollars of valuable assets consisting of timber and mineral rights once held in trust by the Government for the benefit of the Plaintiff's.
While Nations like South Africa have disentangled themselves from and renounced racially based Governmental policies such as "apartheid," the fact that the Ute Partition Act remains law within the United States of America must be told to all honorable American's and to all Nations of the world with Democratic Governments.
Imagine setting in your warm, cozy home on a beautiful Indian Reservation with snow capped mountains to the north, with Pine trees growing abundantly on the slopes and lush valley's full of Elk and Deer. To the south lies a vast stark high desert landscaped against a crystal clear blue sky as far as the eye can see. Then imagine that this reservation has been yours by Congressional decree since 1861. Your home sits on vast untapped reserve's of mineral wealth such as Oil and Natural Gas and you drink water from crystal clear cool rivers and streams that your ancestors revered and prayed to with the highest Spiritual regard.
Suddenly you see strangers on your land. These strangers, distant but related were moved on to your land from another land, known as the state of Colorado, by the United States Army. You are told they will only be there a little while, so you say ok and let them stay, just for a while until the Government gives them their own reservation in Colorado. The next thing you know their in your living room with the permission of the government, telling you that your no longer Indian anymore, to turn the land, water, trees, animals, minerals and the land over to these outsiders and to move off themland.Your Grandparents and Parents ask a simple question "WHY" and is never given an answer. They die wondering why their Indian identity was stripped from them, their lands stolen and why they got only misery and poverty in return.
Sounds like a bad dream that you can simply wake up from! Sadly this option is not available to the plaintiffs who filed this action against the U.S. Government. Their action will require some reflection by the people of America on years of systematic destruction of their Native culture, family's and the political and economic disenfranchisement that has isolated them from their ancestor's spiritual homeland and left them in the most impoverished condition right in the middle of one of the most wealthy democratic nations of the world - the United States of America....
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED