The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation is suing Colorado for discrimination in federal court, alleging that a recently passed law denies the Tribe equal access to its ancestral lands.
That law, Colorado Revised Statute § 33-12-103.8, provides free access to Colorado’s state parks for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, but does not include the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
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Colorado officials “acknowledge that the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribes’ members have rights in — and granted access to — these sacred sites, but wrongly discriminate against the Ute Indian Tribe — which has these exact same rights in the sacred sites,” the lawsuit filed Dec. 19 in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado states.
By excluding the Ute Indian Tribe, Colorado’s law violates the Brunot Agreement of 1874, a federal agreement that says all Ute tribes have the right to hunt, fisher and gather on lands that now include many Colorado state parks; the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, which says federal law supercedes state law; the 14th Amendment and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, according to the lawsuit.
“Colorado’s parks bill is a broken promise codified into law,” Ute Tribal Chairman Shaun Chapoose said in a statement. “It is shameful. It acknowledges the profound ties to our homelands while demanding our exiled Tribe pay an entrance fee to visit our own sacred grounds from which they drove us.”
Read the full story on The Denver Post's website.
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