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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal by Myton in a legal battle over the boundaries of Ute Indian Tribe lands within the Duchesne County city.
City attorneys requested the dismissal of a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear Myton's challenge to a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins had dismissed Myton as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the Ute Tribe, which sought to enforce the terms of previous 10th Circuit rulings determining the boundaries of "Indian Country." But in a decision in August, the appeals court said the "checkerboard" boundaries defended by the tribe had been set clearly in those rulings, and the court reinstated Myton as a defendant.
Myton then asked the Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the 10th Circuit decision.
On Monday, J. Craig Smith, an attorney for Myton, said the City Council determined that withdrawing its petition to the Supreme Court "would signal both the desire and good faith" of the city to resolve remaining issues through negotiation and cooperation.
The Ute Indian Tribe's governing business committee applauded the city's decision, saying that the withdrawal means last summer's 10th Circuit's decision is final. That 3-0 ruling — written by then-10th Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch, who is now a U.S. Supreme Court justice — confirms the tribe's sovereignty and jurisdiction over Indian Country lands within Myton, the committee said.
The tribe has a separate appeal involving boundary disputes with the state of Utah and counties, but it said that that matter in 10th Circuit Court is paused because the parties are in mediation.
The Ute boundary litigation began in earnest in 1975, when the tribe filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying the state and several local governments were prosecuting American Indians for crimes they allegedly committed on tribal lands. The tribe said that, under federal law, American Indians in Indian Country are subject to U.S. and tribal prosecution for alleged crimes, but that they are not under state or local jurisdiction.
The state and its subdivisions, including Uintah and Duchesne counties, pointed out that Congress had allowed portions of former Ute reservation land to pass to non-Indians, beginning in 1905. They argued that the transferred lands did not qualify as tribal lands.
The series of court rulings that set Indian Country boundaries led to appeals and seven 10th Circuit decisions in 40 years, including the one in August. Myton, a 1-square-mile municipality, was named as a defendant by the Ute tribe in a lawsuit filed in 2013.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC