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    Resolution Reguesting Repeal of the Ute Partition Act

    Below is a resolution that will be presented at the National Congress of the American Indian during the first week of June. The resolution supports the repeal of the Ute Partition Act.

    For more information, click the links following the resolution.


    TITLE: Repeal of the Ute Partition Act

    WHEREAS, we, the members of the National Congress of American Indians of the United States, invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon our efforts and purposes, in order to preserve for ourselves and our descendants the inherent sovereign rights of our Indian nations, rights secured under the Indian treaties and agreements with the United States, and all other rights and benefits to which we are entitled under the laws and Constitution of the United States, to enlighten the public toward a better understanding of the Indian people, to preserve Indian cultural values, and otherwise promote the health, safety and welfare of the Indian people, do hereby establish and submit the following resolution; and

    WHEREAS, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was established in 1944 and is the oldest and largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments; and

    WHEREAS, the NCAI was founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies that the United States forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their Treaty Rights and Status as Sovereigns; and

    WHEREAS, the NCAI stressed the need for unity and cooperation among tribal governments for the protection of their Treaty and Sovereign Rights; and

    WHEREAS, since 1944, the NCAI has been working to inform the public and the U.S. Congress on the governmental rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives; and

    WHEREAS, the Uinta Valley Reservation was created by Executive Order of President Lincoln on October 3, 1861 and the Order was further confirmed by Act of Congress on May 5, 1864, when Congress set apart the Uinta Valley for the permanent settlement and exclusive occupation by the "Uintah Band"; and

    WHEREAS, in 1880, the Whiteriver Band and the Uncompahgre Utes were brought under military escort to Utah where they resided on the Uintah Valley Reservation with members of the Uintah Band who, from the beginning, maintained a distinctly different culture and lifestyle from the other two bands; and

    WHEREAS, in 1937, the three bands adopted a Constitution, pursuant to the Indian Reorganization Act, under a confederation known as the "Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation"; and

    WHEREAS, in the early 1950's, Arthur Watkins, a U.S. Senator from Utah began to force the federal policy of "termination" on tribes nationwide through various questionable tactics and other forms of unethical and unconscionable coercion; and

    WHEREAS, Sen. Watkins was able to gain, through unscrupulous means, the enactment of six termination laws during the 1954 Congressional Session that targeted the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, the Klamath Indians of Oregon, four Paiute Bands in Utah, the Alabama Coushatta Tribe of Texas and the Uintah and Ouray Indians of Utah for termination of their federally-recognized relationship with the United States; and

    WHEREAS, on August 27, 1954, Congress enacted the "Ute Partition Act" (UPA), Pub. L. No. 671, 68 Stat. 868 (codified as amended at 25 U.S.C. §§ 677-677a (1982)) for the purpose of terminating all three Bands; and

    WHEREAS, only the Uintah Band of Ute Indians remains subjected to the UPA; and

    WHEREAS, all of the Tribes subjected to Acts of Congress in 1954 that resulted in the "termination" of their relationship with the United States, have been restored to federally-recognized status except the Uintah Band; and

    WHEREAS, on July 8, 1970, President Richard M. Nixon sent a formal message to the U.S. Congress renouncing the federal policy of termination and calling upon Congress to take formal action to repudiate this policy that had devastating social and economic effects on many Tribes and their members; and

    WHEREAS, in its October 1976 Final Report of the American Indian Policy Review Commission, "Task Force Ten", empowered by Congress to study and make recommendations on terminated and non-federally recognized Indians, described "a tribe ravaged and divided by termination, a "recognized Ute tribe subjugated to an impending "termination," and to further aggravate matters, a reservation rich in vital natural resources, such as natural gas, minerals and water; and

    WHEREAS, Task Force Ten recommended further and immediate investigation by the General Accounting Office into the situation on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation, "involving BIA mismanagement of trust assets, and non-ethical and illegal BIA administrative actions throughout each phase of the termination process"; and

    WHEREAS, the restoration of the Uintah Band of Utes to its original status as a separate and recognized Tribe is of critical importance to eliminating one of the last remaining federal "termination" laws, the UPA, that has served to the benefit of non-Indians and non-Indian organizations, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, the Piper Corporation and the Wayne Hummer Corporation, who, as shareholders in the Ute Distribution Corporation, have reaped immense wealth from this termination law; and

    WHEREAS, the continuing failure of the United States Congress to enact legislation to repeal P.L. 671 et seq. while increasing numbers of the original terminated Mixed-Blood Uintas die imposes circumstances of an extraordinary emergency nature that is national in scope due to the need to wipe out any remaining termination laws while those affected by its provisions are alive; and

    NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the NCAI does hereby endorse the repeal of the Ute Partition Act and the restoration of federally-recognized individual "Indian" status to those members of the Uinta Band who were "terminated" by this Act; and

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of National Congress of American Indians until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution.

     

    Link to The Terminated Mixed-Blood Uinta's Of the Ute Indian Tribe:  http://www.undeclaredutes.net/

    Link to Resolution and letter of support: http://www.undeclaredutes.net/pdf/UPA-RepealResolNCAI,Reno051108.pdf