Show Utes Struggle to Retain Land Resources Told Since President Lincoln set aside about acres of land for the Uintah Utes to form the Ute Reservation in 1861 the Utes have been in constant struggle to retain their land resources The struggles struggle's struggles struggles gle's have been mostly with their non non- Indian neighbors and the Federal Govern Govern- ment IN THE the and White River Utes were sent to the Uintah Basin from Colorado to share the land with the The big loss to the Utes came in the early when the Federal Government Govern m ment nt acting through the Bureau of Indian Indian Indian In In- dian Affairs and the United States Army forcefully allotted certain land to individual individual dual Indians and opened all of the rest except certain timber and grazing areas which were reser reserved ed for the Utes to homesteading About this time the United United Unit Unit- ed States took huge acres of the northside northside north northside side of the original reservation and converted converted con con- them into National Forest THE UTES have many resources The Ute Tribe is the only tribe in the United States which has an oil shale resource Oil shale was to affect the title of land belonging to the Utes down through many years On April 15 1930 the President of the United States by Executive Order acting in accordance with a law Jaw passed in 1910 withdrew from entry provided by mining laws or any other type of leasing all Federal land which contained oil shale Since Indian land is held in trust t for Indians by the United States Stales Sta ls l's over acres were cre affected THE INDIAN Reorganization Act of 1931 authorized the Secretary of Interior Interior Inter Inter- to restore to tribal ownership the remaining remaining re re- surplus Indian lands that had boon been opened for entry sale or other form of disposal In 1945 19 the Secretary did restore to tribal ownership all such lands to the Ute Indian Tribe that were in the original Uintah and Ouray Reservation established by President Lincoln There were thus two conflicting enactments enact ments regarding the title of over acres of Indian land The Order of 1930 restricted use uso and title of land as asfar asfar asfar far as Indians were concerned The Act of 1934 gave the land to them but with the withdrawal order still in effect IN SEPTEMBER 1968 a Public Land Order further threatened title to Ute lands by specifically listing all aU lands included in eluded in the 1930 withdrawal order In In- eluded in this withdrawal were the over acres of land belonging to the Utes The Utes were stalled With their acrive active ac rive tive consolidation effort utilizing both land purchase and land and exchange the Utes were unable to provide fee title to owners with whom they were exchanging In July 1970 The Business Committee of If the Ute Tribe requested the President or Secretary to revoke the oil shale withdrawal with order as it affected the acres of Ute land THE OCTOBER 5 announcement by Secretary Morton insures Ute title to lands that they had regarded as theirs for lor over no years yean The Secretary's announcement an an- is an example of the way the Government can respond positively to the needs of its citizens |