Show Utes see legal action action over CUP Senator Orrin G G. Hatch Batch m- m R Utah has been advised that the Ute Indian Tribe may be forced into legal action against the United State Government if It President Carter pursues his stated plan to stop development of oC the Central Utah Project I CUP In a letter leller to Senator Hatch the attorney for Cor the Utes Ules Stephen G G. G Boyden of oC Salt Lake City provided documents supporting the Tribes Tribe's position relating to CUP and concluded that the action by the President has placed the Ute Indian Tribe in the hapless position of oC having no plan or reasonable prospect for Cor the development of its water and of forcing the Tribe to sue the United States for breach of trust ACCORDING to Boyden the Bonneville Unit and other elements of the Central Utah Project are based on agreements made by the United States Slates Government for the use of surplus water supplies belonging to the Utes Those water agreements reach back to the before Utah became a state Without the Central Utah Project Project- Bonneville Unit the Indian Tribe will have no alternative but to recover the losses it has sustained In delays to the development of oC their water resources over the past 12 years Boyden also told Senator Hatch The Ute Ule Indian water rights have a priority date of 1861 substantially senior to the first non non Indian indian i rights acquired in 1906 1900 Commenting on Of the Ute position Senator Hatch said Interior Secretaries Morton Morion and Kleppe after alter proper briefings understood the sacred nature of the trust placed in them by the Ute Indians Indians Indians In In- with regard to development development development develop develop- ment of oC their water resources through the Central Utah Project The Senator added If the President and Secretary of Interior are out to strike down over years of water agreements with the Ute Indian Nation they couldn't have found a better way than the elimination of the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project |