SELECT COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS JOHN MELCHER, Montana, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii DENNIS DECONCINI, Arizona WILLIAM S. COHEN, Maine MARK O. HATFIELD, Oregon MAX I. RICHTMAN, Staff Director (II) Delaney, Robert W., professor of history and southwest studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colo.- D'Onofrio, John J., Wagner, D'Onofrio, Waller & Stouffer, counsel, Ute 47 The committee met at 10:56 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 5110, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Melcher (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senator Melcher. Staff present: Max Richtman, staff director; Virginia Boylan, counsel; and Doris Ballard, secretary. Senator MELCHER. The committee will come to order. I apologize for being late. The Interstate Commerce Commission hearing involving the Milwaukee Railroad required that I be present for testimony before that Commission this morning which could not be avoided. In my absence, the committee attempted to find one of the other four committee members to chair the hearing and none were available at the time. We will now proceed and time will necessitate that all witnesses confine their remarks to the pertinent points in their testimony. Their entire testimony that is prepared will be part of the record. The purpose of our public hearing this morning is to hear testimony on S. 2066, the bill to transfer 3,100 acres of Bureau of Land Management land to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and to provide assistance to the tribe for economic development purposes. S. 2066 was introduced by Senators Hart and Armstrong of Colorado. A similar bill, H.R. 6036, sponsored by Representative Kogovsek and Congressman Johnson of Colorado, passed the House earlier this month. The purpose of the bill is to compensate the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe for 15,000 acres of land which were erroneously given by Congress to both the Ute Tribe and the Navajo Tribe, the conflict being that surveys first placed the land in one reservation and then in the other. In 1972, the Supreme Court decided the issue of ownership in favor of the Navajo Tribe. Additionally, the bill would provide economic assistance to the tribe in the amount of $5,840,000, the same amount that was paid by the Supreme Court to the Navajo Tribe for revenues from oil and gas leases on the disputed lands. I will now place a copy of S. 2066 into the hearing record. [The bill follows:] To convey Federal land located in Colorado to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and to pay an amount to such tribe for economic development. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES NOVEMBER 30 (legislative day, November 29), 1979 Mr. HART (for himself and Mr. ARMSTRONG) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources DECEMBER 20 (legislative day, DECEMBER 15), 1979 Rereferred, by unanimous consent, to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Select Committee on Indian Affairs II A BILL To convey Federal land located in Colorado to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and to pay an amount to such tribe for economic development. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That within the thirty-day period beginning on the date of 4 the enactment of this Act the Secretary of the Interior shall 5 convey, without consideration, to the Ute Mountain Ute 6 Tribe, all right, title, and interest of the United States in and |