Ute Indian Tribe criticizes Biden admin. for not consulting them before designation of national monument

The Ute Indian Tribe have lashed out at President Joe Biden’s designation of the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument on Wednesday, referring to it as “an unlawful act of genocide.”

The Biden administration designated a new National Monument in the middle of the Ute Indian Tribe’s traditional homelands. The administration reportedly did this without seeking permission from the tribal consultation and retaining the tribe in the management of the land.

The tribe released a statement a matter of hours after Biden met with Colorado leaders to sign a proclamation creating the 53,000-acre monument, which circles a military base in the Rocky Mountains.  

In the statement, Ute leaders rebuked the administration for not reaching out to them or listening to any of their concerns.

“They moved forward with a monument on our homelands without including us. They talk about tribal consultation, but their actions do not match their words,” the Ute Business Committee said. “We cannot support a monument on our homelands that does not include the Tribe.”

Shaun Chapoose, who is the chairman of the tribe’s governing council and an Uncompahgre Band member, spoke out about his dislike of the new monument and also the disrespect that was shown to his tribe.

“These new monuments are an abomination and demonstrate manifest disregard and disrespect of the Ute Indian Tribe’s treaty rights and sovereign status as a federally recognized Indian Tribe,” Chapoose said.

The Ute Indian Tribe also clashed with former President Donald Trump after he reduced the monument by 85%. The tribe sued Trump, and the boundaries were eventually restored by Biden in 2021.

Biden made a speech on Wednesday to recognize the importance of the area for veterans, as the 10th Mountain Division trained here during World War II, and the Indigenous connections to the Colorado landscape.

“For thousands of years,” Biden said, “Tribal Nations have been stewards of this sacred land, hunting game, foraging for medicinal plants, and maintaining a deep, spiritual bond with the land itself. But by the 1800s, mining activity and federal government drove out Indigenous Tribes from their homes. But those Tribes continued to use these sacred lands.”