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Show By J.ick W.illis v J It is hard to tell who comes out on top when an Indian tribe enters into a lawsuit making claims to lands, water rights and jurisdiction that was once theirs. Many millions of federal dollars have been paid to Indian people because of the way the non-Indians have taken over choice original Indian lands. The big question now is, how long and how much must the non-Indians keep paying for the lands and water rights they acquired from the Indians? In the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins in Salt Lake City Ci-ty concerning the boundary claims of the Ute Tribe for the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, there is mixed opinion. opi-nion. Local residents are happy with the judgement because it excluded the area known as the old Uncompahgre Reservation Reser-vation or exterior boundary from the Ute Tribe claim. This area includes most of Uintah County about five miles south of Vernal and includes the rich energy area of the state. Judge Jenkins also excluded national forest areas claimed in the Indian suit, the Strawberry reclamation lands, and also an area west of Vernal known as the Gilsonite Strip. Included within the Indian reservation reserva-tion lands, according to Judge Jenkins decision, are the cities of Ballard in Uintah County and Roosevelt, Duchesne, Myton and Altamont in Duchesne County. The area in southern Uintah County known as the Hill Creek Extension was of course ruled as Indian lands. Uintah County did all right in the judgement with the exception of the westside portion of the county. Duchesne County came out on the short end. It does not want Indian jurisdiction over its towns and cities. The futility in Indian court cases is that no one seems to be satisfied with any court decision. Appeals are almost certain because the Indian claims are not recognized and the non-Indian concessions con-cessions are too demanding. Where the line will finally be drawn between Indian In-dian and non-Indian rights is a question that may never be solved, it may always be left in abeyance with the courts. This is probably the most aggravating ag-gravating part of Indian litigation to the non-Indian people. The Indian representatives don't seem to be concerned con-cerned with the time element or the expense ex-pense of litigation. The non-Indian side of the issue want to know where they stand on the issues and don't want to wait for what seems like forever. Judge Jenkins has made an admirable ad-mirable effort to settle the local Indian boundary and jurisdictional question in a forthright and fair manner. If each side is allowed to appeal the case because they didn't get all they wanted there is little hope of ever settling the issues. We can see many problems in giving Duchesne County cities to the Ute Tribe. Can an independent non-Indian city exist within an Indian Reservation? Reserva-tion? Even though many of these problems pro-blems may never be solved their ex-istance ex-istance will have a detrimental effect on the future prosperity and growth of that area. Judge Jenkins has made an attempt to solve the Indian dispute in northeastern nor-theastern Utah, his judgement sounds wise and fair, and it is up to those involved in-volved to work out the solutions to their problems and make the best out of a situation that could be carried on forever without compromise and agreement. |