"This newspaper article is from the Vernal Express dated June 17, 1954, page 9. The individuals listed are interesting. The Uinta(h) & Ouray Agency Superintendent, Phoenix Area Office representative, and John Boyden, Attorney for both parties (conflict of interest), knew that the Confederated Utes of Colorado did not have interests in our property. The other individuals went along with the narrative that would benefit the State of Utah and their State citizen Confederated Utes. Another important fact is that none of the Uinta Band of Utah's leadership or representatives were present; however, they are conducting business and passing Bills. Albert Harris was not our representative and was actually a Navajo from another reservation. For his participation in the fraud, he was awarded a government position." - (Petition for Federal Acknowledgement of the Affiliated Ute Citizens of the State of Utah)
Albert Harris’s Role in the Termination of the Mixed-Blood Utes
Albert L. Harris, the Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent at the Uintah and Ouray Agency during the early 1950s, played a significant administrative role in advancing the termination of the mixed-blood Utes under the Ute Partition and Termination Act. As the agency’s top local official, Harris helped carry out Senator Arthur Watkins’s termination agenda by overseeing eligibility calculations, enrollment classifications, and the economic assessments that determined who was labeled “full-blood” and “mixed-blood.” These classifications ultimately shaped who would be terminated and who would remain under federal trust protection.
Harris frequently interpreted federal policy in ways that reinforced the divide between full-blood and mixed-blood Utes. He supported arguments that the mixed-blood population was sufficiently assimilated and thus ready for termination, a position that aligned closely with the preferences of termination advocates. His administrative decisions and the reports he approved helped justify the removal of mixed-blood Utes from federal supervision.
Harris also worked in parallel with attorney John Boyden, whose undisclosed conflicts of interest shaped the partition process. While Boyden drove the legal strategy, Harris provided the administrative infrastructure that made Boyden’s proposals workable, including supporting land evaluations and resource assessments that ultimately weakened the bargaining position of the mixed-blood Utes. At meetings held throughout the partition process, Harris frequently accepted or echoed positions that minimized mixed-blood concerns over land allocation, grazing rights, timber revenues, and mineral interests.
Following the passage of the Ute Partition and Termination Act in 1954, Harris became central to the bureaucratic execution of termination. He organized community meetings, oversaw documentation submissions, and certified the final mixed-blood rolls for federal review. His consistent willingness to support and enact federal directives ensured that the termination process continued despite mixed-blood objections. By 1956, his administrative involvement had helped complete the steps that formally terminated the federal status of the mixed-blood Utes.
