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Nearly 500 “mixed blood" members of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northern Utah have withdrawn from the tribe and are now in the process of setting up their own organization, Commissioner of Indian Affairs Glenn L. Emmons announced today.
The action was taken under Public Law 671 of the 83d Congress which provides for a division of tribal assets between "mixed blood" and "full blood" members and for termination of Federal trusteeship over the property and affairs of the “mixed blood" group by August 27, 1961.
Under the law a tribal member with one half or less Ute blood is automatically classified as a "mixed blood". Members having more than half Ute blood, however, were given the option of affiliating with either group. In the final roll published in the Federal Register on April 5 there were 490 "mixed bloods" and 1,314 "full bloods".
A proposed constitution and bylaws have already been drafted by the "mixed blood" group and approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Under the law they will go into effect when ratified by a majority of the adult "mixed blood" members voting in a special election held for that purpose. Superintendent John O. Crow of the Uintah and Ouray Agency at Fort Duchesne has been instructed to make arrangements for holding such an election sometime between May 5 and June 4.
The organization proposed by the "mixed blood" group would be a corporation under Utah law with authority to hold and manage the group's proportionate share of tribal assets and to receive income belonging to "mixed blood" members from assets which are not immediately susceptible to equitable or practicable division.
The “full blood" members, who live chiefly in the extreme northern and southern sections of the reservation, are now putting the final touches on a proposed development program aimed at making the Tribe and its members eventually self-supporting and independent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The program would include family planning, improvement in resource utilization, health activities, both juvenile and adult education, and recreation.