Not all of the three Ute tribes were on board with President Biden declaring the former military training site Camp Hale as a national monument in order to boost U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s reelection campaign in Colorado.
Shaun Chapoose, chairman of the Utah-based Ute Indian Tribe that has 3,000 members, said they weren’t informed of the pending monument declaration until a week before Biden’s announcement and were denied any opportunity to provide input.
Chapoose accepted the White House’s invitation to attend, but says he left after being treated as an afterthought.
“What frustrated us is that they didn’t want us there to comment, they wanted us there for the photo opp,” Chapoose said. “I don’t expect them to roll out a red carpet, but I expect a little common courtesy. If I’m just going to be one of the Indians that you want to photograph, I’m the wrong Indian to call.”
The Utes certainly seemed like an afterthought in Biden’s speech, which focused on Camp Hale as (checks notes) Camp Hale, the former military alpine training site, and zero mention of Camp Hale, home of the Ute Indian Tribe’s Uncompahgre Band before it was forced off the land in 1880.
“I’m also honored to be joined by several tribal leaders here, because this is your progeny, this magnificent land. These treasured lands tell the story of America. For thousands of years, 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,” Biden said.
Honestly, the same could be said about pretty much every inch of land in the U.S.
As a matter of fact, “Ute” can’t be found anywhere in the speech Biden delivered.
Chapoose was right. That the site was once the Ute homeland was a complete afterthought to getting Bennet reelected.
That’s why it’s named the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, and not the Ute Indian Tribe’s Uncompahgre Home and Burial monument.
“It is a disgrace to our ancestors to exclude the Tribe in the care and protection of these burial sites,” members of the business committee said in a news release. “We are shocked that 200 years later, nothing has changed. This unlawful action by the president today is a desecration of our ancestors that remain buried on our homelands.”
Chapoose said the tribe plans to take action, and is asking Congress to hold hearings about their concerns of this monument and other issues.
“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. “If it’s a fight they want it’s a fight they will get.”
We’re willing to bet no such hearings will be held in a Democrat-controlled Congress.