Indian reservation

An Indian reservation is a legal designation for an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, rather than the state governments of the United States in which they are physically located. Each of the 326Indian reservations in the United States are associated with a particular Nation. Not all of the country's 567recognized tribes have a reservation—some tribes have more than one reservation, some share reservations, while others have none. In addition, because of past land allotments, leading to some sales to non-Native Americans, some reservations are severely fragmented, with each piece of tribal, individual, and privately held land being a separate enclave. This jumble of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties.

The collective geographical area of all reservations is 56,200,000 acres (22,700,000 ha; 87,800 sq mi; 227,000 km²), approximately the size of Idaho. While most reservations are small compared to US states, there are twelve Indian reservations larger than the state of Rhode Island. The largest reservation, the Navajo Nation Reservation, is similar in size to West Virginia. Reservations are unevenly distributed throughout the country; the majority are west of the Mississippi River and occupy lands that were first reserved by treaty or 'granted' from the public domain.

Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation

The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation is located in northeastern Utah, USA. It is the homeland of the Northern Ute Tribe, and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Tribe of Native Americans. It lies in parts of seven counties; in descending order of land area they are: Uintah, Duchesne, Wasatch, Grand, Carbon, Utah, and Emery counties. The total land area is 6,769.173 sq mi (17,532.078 km²) with control of the lands split between Ute Indian Allottees, the Ute Indian Tribe, and the Ute Distribution Corporation. Tribal owned lands only cover approximately 1.2 million acres (4,855 km²) of surface land and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of mineral-owned land within the 4 million acres (16,185 km²) reservation area. There was a population of 19,182 persons living on the reservation as of the 2000 census. It is the second-largest Indian reservation in land area, smaller than only the Navajo Indian Reservation but with control of the land split between multiple authorities. Tribal headquarters are in Fort Duchesne, located in Uintah County, Utah. The largest community on its territory is the city of Roosevelt, although most of its residents are not of Native American heritage.

Ute people

Ute people /ˈjuːt/ are in the Great Basin classification of Indigenous People, now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah (3,500 members); Southern Ute in Colorado (1,500 members); and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico (2,000 members). The name of the state of Utah was derived from the name Ute. The word Ute means "Land of the sun" in their language. "Ute" possibly derived from the Western Apache word "yudah", meaning "high up". This has led to the misconception that "Ute" means people high up or mountain people.

Language

The people speak the Ute language, which is related to the Southern Paiute language and belong to the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. A dictionary and grammar have been written for the language, and the Bible has been translated into Ute. Several orthographies exist, but the language is written in the Latin script.

History

Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation

The Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of Ute Indians in Utah. The Uintah are a western band of Ute.

Government

The Uintah and Ouray Reservation headquarters is located in Fort Duchesne, Utah.

The Utes have a complex government system that works closely with US Federal and Utah state governments.

Reservation

The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation control is the second-largest Indian Reservation in the US – covering over 4,500,000 acres (18,000 km²) of land. However, control of the lands is split between Ute Indian Allottees, the Ute Indian Tribe, and the Ute Distribution Corporation. Tribal owned lands only cover approximately 1.2 million acres (4,855 km²) of surface land and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of mineral-owned land within the 4 million acres (16,185 km²) reservation area. Founded in 1863, it is located in Carbon, Duchesne, Grand, Uintah, Utah, and Wasatch Counties in Utah.

Raising stock and oil and gas leases are important revenue streams for the reservation. The tribe is a member of the Council of Energy Resource Tribes.