An energy company is offering a public apology to the Ute Tribe of Utah for challenging the tribe's sovereignty and for arguing that the tribe's reservation has been diminished.

QEP Field Services, a subsidiary of Questar Corporation, operates five plants on the reservation. A dispute over the construction of a new natural gas processing plant led to a sovereignty dispute.

"QEP regrets and I hereby personally apologize for our decision to challenge the Uintah and Ouray Reservation boundary and jurisdictional authority of the tribe as part of our company’s legal defense of the federal government’s Clean Air Act case," Charles B. Stanley, the president and CEO of QEP said in a letter published in Indian Country Today.

"To that end, we have voluntarily and unilaterally amended our answer to the government’s complaint to eliminate the defenses associated with the disestablishment of the Uncompahgre portion of your reservation, and the court has now accepted our amended answer," Stanley wrote.

During the dispute, former chairman Curtis Cesspooch, who was recently been ousted from his position, initiated banishment proceedings against QEP. The company claimed the tribe's court lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

Get the Story:
Charles B. Stanley: Apologies to the Ute Tribe (Indian Country Today 12/3)

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Internal tribal conflict seeks solution (Indian Country Today 12/3)

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