Citing a long-standing dispute over law enforcement jurisdiction and what leaders of the 3,157-member Ute Tribe say are civil rights violations and racial profiling by local police, tribal leaders have called for a boycott of Roosevelt businesses. The tribe announced the boycott through an attorney Friday morning. The prepared statement from Fredericks Peebles & Morgan of Louisville, Colo., said the boycott includes businesses located within Roosevelt City that are not owned by the Ute tribe or by tribal members. According to the statement, the boycott does not apply to businesses affiliated with or doing business for or in partnership with the Tribe, such as oil and gas operators or contractors that maintain an office in Roosevelt. Ashley Regional Medical Center The statement cited “ongoing civil rights violations and discriminatory law enforcement activities carried out against tribal members by Roosevelt law enforcement officers.” According to the statement from the attorney, the tribal government and all enterprises and departments of the tribe will enforce the boycott and the tribal government requests that all businesses and individuals doing business with the tribe participate in the boycott. Oil and natural gas service companies and contractors with offices in Roosevelt are exempt from the boycott. Several attempts to get comments from tribal officials on Friday, Saturday and Tuesday were unsuccessful. Tuesday morning, Attorney Eduardo Provencio of Fredericks Peebles & Morgan told the Uintah Basin Standard that he was not authorized to make any statements on behalf of the tribe. He said he would ask the business committee members if any would be interested in making a statement. No one from the Ute Business Committee, the tribe’s governing body, called the Standard by press time. Tribal leaders have expressed frustration with the city’s failure to discuss a cooperative law enforcement agreement. Roosevelt City has maintained that federal court rulings have settled the issue of law enforcement jurisdiction within the city limits and negates the need for negotiations. The tribe’s position has been that law enforcement officers from Duchesne and Uintah counties and cities within the area lack authority to stop or arrest tribal members for offenses occurring within “exterior boundaries” of the reservation. Those were the reservation boundary limits prior to the federal government opening lands in the Uintah Basin to non-Indian homesteading about 1905 and the establishment of Roosevelt City in 1913 within an area that the Utes maintain is within the exterior boundary. The recent arrest of a tribe member by Roosevelt Police might have led to the boycott. The Ute Business Committee said in a recent statement that a tribal member was stopped in Roosevelt and arrested without being charged with any offense. “Roosevelt Police can stop anybody who is breaking the law,” Roosevelt City Attorney Stephen Foote said Friday afternoon. He did not have a detailed comment at that time. The Uintah Basin Standard attempted unsuccessfully to contact Roosevelt Police Chief Rick Harrison on Friday, Saturday and again on Monday. A now expired law enforcement agreement between the Ute Tribe, state of Utah, and Duchesne and Uintah counties was never fully implemented. Later efforts to negotiate a new agreement fell apart in 2011. In June, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins denied a request by the tribe for a preliminary injunction against the state, Duchesne and Uintah counties and three cities in a lawsuit that was first filed during the 1970s. Jenkins inherited the case in 1978 when he became a federal judge. Twenty-two years later, in 2000, he dismissed it after the parties agreed to 10-year jurisdictional agreements that are now expired. In April, Jenkins granted a request to reopen the case. During September 1997, Jenkins ended an injunction that had denied Roosevelt City Police jurisdiction over tribal members in misdemeanor cases based on a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that removed Roosevelt from within reservation boundaries. The tribe’s response was a boycott of Roosevelt businesses that lasted 13 months, until October 1998. With new calls for a boycott, Roosevelt City has released a statement denying any misconduct by municipal law enforcement and stating that city police enforce laws without regard to the race of people who violate laws or of crime victims. The statement also said the city disagrees with the boycott, that city officials are surprised and disappointed and asks all members of the community to respect one another. “We’re very disappointed,” Mayor Vaun Ryan told the Standard on Friday. “Our goal is to always try to communicate and to try to get along with the tribe and all other entities and make sure everyone is treated fairly.” Duchesne County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Irene Hansen said, “Roosevelt is considered the ‘Heart of the Uintah Basin.’ After a summer of celebration and events that welcomed residents and visitors from all over the Uintah Basin, it is evident that it is the generosity of local businesses that made these events possible. Our local businesses contribute greatly to our quality of life. This news brings a sense of sadness to all concerned.”
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 01:05:35 +0000
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