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<br />B3/29/2BB4 13:B2 72B489B524
<br />pJ/ZJ/ZOD4 1~:05 FAX 202 224 5429
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<br />FAX
<br />INDIAN AFFAIRS
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<br />001123
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<br />t"A\X. ~t>/ll
<br />1aI002
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<br />Dear RpqerT attached is our testimony. If any of it seems too strong, too
<br />accusatory, ~n your judgment, we are more than willing to change it before it
<br />is' circulated.
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<br />Both u~e c~ibeS will be testifying, trom what you told me yesterday. Let me
<br />'gi~e you a thumb nail sketch. The two tribes have a combined population of
<br />about 3000 people. The smaller of the two, the Southern Utes, surely are
<br />among the wealthiest groups of people in the state. Numbering about 1300
<br />'souls,' they reported the value of their investment portfolio at about $1.5
<br />billion a year aqo, most of ~t coming rram oil and qas revenues a They are the
<br />largest single natural gas producer in the state, I believe. The ~alue of the
<br />portfolio does not include the value of their land, timber, oil, gas, and cosl
<br />reserves, cattle, or casino. The Ute Mountain' Utes are less wealthy,
<br />ce~a1nlY, but they too have a casino, tremendous land resources given their
<br />numbers, and receive substantial crop subsidies from the federally constructed
<br />Dolores project. hccordinq to the EWY website the UMU ~eceived about $430,000
<br />in crop subsidy payments between' 1995 and 2002. They don't farm their Dolores
<br />Projeot irrigation land. They hi~e a non-Indian manager, thouqh the operstion
<br />does p~ovide some ~loyment for tribal members, maYbe 6 or 7 people
<br />seasonally from what were told a couple of years ago.
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<br />Campbell and other baokers of A-LP have repeatedly said thet the Utes ha~e
<br />been le~t high and dry for oenturies, ~aiting patiently for their water. This
<br />is a preposterous an~ contemptible lie. The two tribes oontrol about 150,000
<br />acre feet of water al~eady. That's enough water for the residential needs of
<br />well over 1,000,000 people, and is worth a large fortune if leased downst~eam.
<br />Most. of this water has came through the efforts of the feds, soma of it, like
<br />the DOlores'Project water, at tremendous cost. 6y oomparison in terma of
<br />water 'wealth, ~he state of Nevada is entitled to 300,000 aore feet of water
<br />under :the 'Colorado River Compaot. With A-LP, the utes, all 3,000 of them,
<br />will.'rival the water wealth.of Ne~ada. I believe Nevada has about 2,000,000
<br />peopl~ according to the 2000 oensus.
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<br />The claim that A-LP is necessary to satisfy Ote t~eaty rights is apparently a
<br />msjor;stumc1inq block for you all. some history: The Utes have been before
<br />the U.S. Supreme Court twice with claims that they have unsatisfied monetary
<br />claims against the United $tstes for the loss of their 16S8 reservatIon. It
<br />was dissolved in 1990 as a result of the so-called Heeker Massacre and not
<br />reestablished until 1938. The Court has held twice, once in 1971 and
<br />implicitly in 1999, that the UteS have been compensated by the United States
<br />for the lose of their reservation and that further cOn5ide~ation is res
<br />judicata. Even so, this has not stopped the Utes and their highly paid
<br />lawyers and lobbyists f~om pushing A-LP as necessary to satisfy their
<br />remaining 1868 claims, right. the Supreme Court has ~uled they don't have
<br />because they've already been oompensated for them. It is our opinion that A-LP
<br />represents the $atisfaction of ~ non-existant claim, a huge fr~ud really, but
<br />one too delicate for most to t~k~ on because of the partie~ involved and our
<br />country's past treatmen't of the Indian people. OUr attorney, Alison Maynardl
<br />3Q3 758 7039, has written a law review artiole on this subject. w. will
<br />incorporate it into our tinal comments.
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<br />I won't bury you ~urther in_the sordid history of A-LP except to say that one
<br />of the witnesses on the 24th, Hr. Griswald, the head of the Animas La Plata
<br />Water ,Conservation Di5tr1ct, is an interesting case. That district, which
<br />taxes local ~esidents and was set Up specifically to manaqe the project, has
<br />not eont~acted for any water trom it. One wonders why he is there? Someone
<br />might.as~ him why they haven't contracted for any wate~ f~om a project they
<br />jntend to manaqe and how much they would be wi~linq to pay for such wate~~
<br />Would.they be willing to pay their share if the costs went to $l,OOO,OOO,OOO? ~
<br />2,000;000,0007 Watch the squirmi~q. Everybody wanta th1s project as lonq as
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<br />ClipMa~ Report at 3/2312004 6;08:26 PM
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