Ute Indian Tribe Issues Press Release on Banished Tribal Members Court Case

The Ute Indian Tribe has issued a press release dated December 4th regarding a federal court case that had been filed against the Tribe by banished tribal members. The release shares that “On December 3rd, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of Utah, Judge Dale A. Kimball presiding, dismissed a case, Angelita M. Chegup, [versus the] Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, filed by four members of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation who had been banished by the Tribe in 2018. The case was filed against the Tribe, its Business Committee, which is the Tribe’s governing body, and the individual members of the Business Committee.” In October 2018, seventy members of the Ute Tribe filed a complaint to the Business Committee, requesting the banishment of a group of members who in another lawsuit were arguing that certain land on the reservation should be preserved for the Uintah Band of Ute Indians, not the Tribe itself. After a hearing, the Business Committee banished the four members, fining them and taking away certain Tribal rights for five years. Those members then filed a Utah lawsuit, requesting relief under the Due Process Clause of the Indian Civil Rights Act. According to the Ute Tribe press release, the district court case was dismissed because “the banished members had not shown they were ‘detained’, as that term is understood under the ICRA, where they had not been permanently banished.”