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Utah court tries to figure out who is legally Indian
Thursday, September 22, 2005
The Utah Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a case testing who is legally Indian in the state.
Rick Reber, 53, and his son Colton, 16, are mixed-blood Uintas. They say their Indian status entitles them to hunt on Indian land without a state permit.
Not everyone agrees the Rebers are Indian. A state attorney said people with less than 1/16 Indian blood are usually not considered Indian. The Ute Tribe says the Uintas and other mixed-blood Utes were terminated.
Reber says the case is about discrimination. "We are light complected, a lot of us. A lot of us are dark, and that's just prejudice as far as I'm concerned," he told KSL-TV.
Get the Story:
Case Looks at Benefits of 'Mixed-Blood' Indians
(KSL-TV 9/21)
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