A federal judge, who has presided over 24 years of complex jurisdictional issues on the Uintah Valley Reservation, has ruled against a group of mixed-blood Indians that wanted to join the Ute Indian Tribe in a nearly settled lawsuit against the state that began in 1975.
Calling themselves the Timpanogos Tribe, Snake Band of the Shoshoni Indians, the group contends they are the ones to whom Abraham Lincoln referred when he issued an 1861 executive order declaring the land preserved for the Indians of the Utah Territory. Mary Meyer, chief executive of the tribe, said her people never surrendered their sovereignty, and they asked a federal judge to let them intervene in the Ute Tribe's existing lawsuit over state taxation of tribal members.At a Nov. 22 hearing, however, U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins denied the Timpanogos Tribe the authority to intervene and also denied the tribe's motion for a temporary restraining order it sought to prevent the Ute Tribe from conducting negotiations without them.
"First, the judge established that the Timpanogos Tribe is not federally recognized," said Ute Tribe Deputy General Counsel Sandy Hansen "Second, the judge cautioned the tribe that before it could bring its claims into the federal courts it would have to exhaust the administrative procedure for becoming federally recognized."
The judge also told Meyer, and her husband Kenneth Hackford, the two Timpanogos Tribe members who brought the motion, that because they deny affiliation with the Ute Tribe, they are not bound by or cannot benefit from any agreements the tribe negotiates.
The attorneys for both parties are drafting an official order, consistent with Jenkins' ruling from the bench, for the judge to approve.
Michael L. Humiston, the attorney for the Timpanogos Tribe, said he will still pursue "several routes" in an effort to have his clients receive their rightful place in history as heirs to the Uintah Valley Reservation. He plans to file for federal recognition as a tribe with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and said he will appeal Jenkins' ruling.
"It's a very unique situation. Most tribes who lost their recognition also lost their land base, but that is not the case here," Humiston said.
Humiston said the Ute Tribe shouldn't look at the claims of the Timpanogos Tribe as an encroachment. "The Utes have nothing to lose in this. . . . The only one who gains (in the current court decision) is the state of Utah," he said.
The first time Ute Tribe officials ever heard of the Timpanogos Tribe was three weeks ago when Humiston filed the lawsuit.
"We were kind of taken back by their boldness," said Ute Tribe General Counsel Robert S. Thompson III.
The suit gained a foothold for a brief time when Judge Dale A. Kimball ordered the lawsuit consolidated with the Ute Tribe's 1975 suit.
"Although the Timpanogos claim to ownership of the Uintah Valley portion of the reservation has no basis in law or fact, it represented the most serious threat to the Ute Indian Tribe's existence that has been filed in the 18 years I have worked for the tribe," Thompson said.
"We were always confident that we are the Ute Indian Tribe that is the proper governing body for this reservation."
At the same time Jenkins denied the motion of the Timpanogos Tribe, he also gave the state and Ute Tribe officials an additional 31/2 months to complete negotiations dealing with the taxation of enrolled Ute Tribe members within Indian country.
"We indicated that we were close but not quite there," said Philip C. Pugsley, assistant attorney general for Indian-related matters. Some of the tax negotiations may require legislative action, he said.
The Navajo Nation is involved with the state in motor-fuel tax negotiations. The Utes are negotiating with the state over benefits for their members when it comes to motor-fuel taxes, as well as state sales and income taxes.
The next court hearing on the taxation issue is slated for March 13, 2000.