A press release issued from the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation condemns a bill working through Colorado’s state legislature. Colorado House Bill 25-1163 passed in the House, which intensified the Tribe’s efforts to contest “the bill based on its thinly veiled attempts to erase Ute Indian Tribe history and its infringement upon the Tribe’s inherent sovereignty and treaty rights.” The Tribe had sought acknowledgment and inclusion of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation and proposed amendments to the bill sponsors. The Tribe notes that HB 25-1163 advanced without incorporating these specific proposals and without response to a letter detailing the Tribe’s history. So what is it the Tribe expects? A news release dated May 6th states, “The basis for the Tribe’s challenge includes the assertion that the legislation, particularly in granting state park access only to its sister tribes…disregards the Tribe’s deep historical connection and presence in its ancestral homelands across Colorado and seeks to employ the oldest trick in the colonial handbook ‘divide and conquer’ amongst these three historic stewards of this territory…The Tribe views the progression of HB 25-1163 without adequate consultation or inclusion as contrary to principles of respect for tribal sovereignty and government-to-government relations or worse – an attempt at further erasure.” Ute Tribe Business Committee Chairman Julius T. Murray III states, “By further expanding access to public parks without considering the process for how these places need to exist is an offense to the Ute Indian Tribe and all our people.”
