Ute Indian Tribe and Utah trust land disputes

What happened

The Ute Indian Tribe has tried to buy back land inside the historic boundaries of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation that is now held by Utah's school trust lands agency. High Country News reports that the Trust Lands Administration controls half a million acres within the reservation's boundaries, that the Tribe has tried to buy trust land at auction in the past, and that it is currently suing the Department of the Interior for the return of 1.5 million acres. The Tribe declined repeatedly through its lawyer to comment for the story.

According to the article, in 2018 the Tribe outbid Utah's wildlife agency at auction for a state trust parcel, and a week later the agency's board suspended the sale. In 2022 the Tribe sued Utah officials in federal court for discrimination, fraud and breaching trust obligations after a whistleblower alleged the sale was deliberately blocked. The Tribe re-filed the lawsuit in November, accusing officials of manipulating trust-land sales with "racial animus."

The article reports that in 2024 Utah Rep. Casey Snider spearheaded a bill allowing the Trust Lands Administration to sell parcels larger than 5,000 acres directly to the Division of Wildlife Resources for fair market value. The Ute Tribe Business Committee saw it as an attempt to stop it from buying back ancestral land. Snider played down those concerns. Shortly before publication, it says, the board authorized a no-bid sale of a roughly 50,000-acre roadless block to the wildlife division, despite the Tribe's court challenge.

Good to know. These are the Tribe's allegations in ongoing lawsuits, not a completed land return.

Summarized with AI assistance from 4 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error