Uinta -- Land tenure, Uinta -- Relocation, Uinta -- Government policy, Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation (Utah) -- History -- Sources, Land Tenure, Utah -- Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, Uinta, Ute, Utah 

"In The Dispossessed, Parker M. Nielson chronicles the tragic story of the mixed-blood Utes. A leading Utah attorney, Nielson represented this group in its suit against the U.S. government, decided by the Supreme Court in 1972. Although the Court determined that the mixed-bloods had been defrauded, it declined to restore their property. Basing his account on extensive research as well as his own firsthand experience, Nielson brings to light for the first time the disturbing events led up to the landmark decision.

Deprived of their native lands in central Utah by immigrant Mormons, the mixed-blood Utes - almost exclusively members of the Uintah band - were confined to a reservation in eastern Utah, with a promise from the U.S. government that the land would be theirs alone forever. This promise was not kept. The final blow was the Termination Act, enacted in the early 1950s. Designed to end government supervision of American Indians and the obligation of federal entitlements, its consequences for the mixed-blood Utes - as well as for many other Indian groups - were devastating, for it deprived them of their assets, land, and very way of life.

Drawing in particular on the testimony of individual Utes affected by the termination policy, Nielson discloses the broken promises and backhanded schemes perpetuated by government officials and the Utes' own lawyers, whose motives were compromised by self-interest. The author explores an all-too-neglected subject: the role of tribal attorneys in influencing tribal histories."--Book jacket.