When it comes to Indigenous issues across Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox is listening and helping the approximately 41,644 Native Americans living in the state with COVID-19 and infrastructure development for rural communities, according to tribal leaders.
Leaders from most of Utah’s sovereign tribal nations give Cox a B-grade and say they’re mostly happy with the governor’s work in his first year of office.
Holding the governor’s rating back, they say, is Cox’s support of a likely lawsuit to shrink Bears Ears National Monument, which was restored by President Joe Biden after being reduced by President Donald Trump. In addition to Bears Ears, the ongoing redistricting issues in San Juan County is another topic of concern for tribes, particularly the Navajo Nation, which would like the state to weigh in on county issues like voting districts.
Part of the process
“The executive agencies under the government are trying really hard to work with tribal governments and in trying to secure a healthy Utah,” said Dustin Jansen, who is Navajo (Diné) and serves as a political appointee under Cox as the executive director for the Utah Division of Indian Affairs.
“He’s very cognizant of the idea that we cannot overstep our bounds as a state government, especially when tribal governments are taking the lead over their own affairs,” Jansen added.
Cox has relied on the American Indian/Alaskan Native Health Liaison role in the Utah Department of Health to help the state coordinate with tribal governments on their COVID-19 needs to ensure better health security, Jansen said.
The Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation (CTGR) Business Council has also consulted on the merger of the department with the Department of Human Services into the Department of Health and Human Services. The tribe has worked during these conversations to make tribal-state consultation more efficient, said Chairman Rupert Steele.
“During this merger, Utah’s leadership consulted with Indian Country to develop a plan to create an Office of American Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, Senate Bill 28,” added Steele, who represents about 600 enrolled CTGR tribal members living in both Utah and Nevada.
Utah State Sen. Jani Iwamoto is the sponsor of Senate Bill 28 that will be considered this upcoming legislature session.
Tests, vaccines and rights on ancestral lands
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit tribal communities hard, with some communities having higher cases per capita early in the pandemic than the rest of the state.
“When we talk about health and health security, he was very quick to make sure that our tribe had vaccinations real quickly,” said Brad Parry, vice chairman for the Northwest Band of Shoshone. “He kept up on how the vaccinations were going for us.”
The Northwest Band of Shoshone is a federally recognized tribe with no land base and has been working with Cox to make sure that the tribe has a say in hunting and fishing rights under its treaty to their ancestral lands in Utah. Cox has been receptive to honoring the tribe’s treaty rights, asking to work with the state to align with federal regulations, Parry said.
“He’s offered to call the governor of Idaho because the State of Idaho does not want to honor our treaty rights in hunting or fishing,” Parry said. “And our governor is willing to call them and say, ‘Hey, hold on, here’s what’s going on. Here’s how I think,’ and for a governor to do that for you is huge.”
Parry added that his band and Cox are also having preliminary talks about reserving lands for his people. Their aboriginal lands include parts of the Salt Lake, Cache Valley, and into parts of Idaho and Wyoming, Parry said.
Getting long-promised water electricity
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said that he and the governor’s relationship goes back to when Cox was lieutenant governor and that the two worked together with tribal public health officials to ensure the Utah Navajo Health System serves Diné people in San Juan County during the pandemic.
Another project that Nez appreciates Cox’s work on is getting water and electricity to Westwater, a mostly Diné community just outside of Blanding. Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson has visited Westwater at least three times, and the state, tribe and other partners, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are working to get the town services that have been promised since the 1980s.
While the Navajo Nation’s relationship with the state is generally healthy, Nez is unhappy with the state’s lack of support of redistricting matters in San Juan County. The county has been in legal battles with the Navajo Nation over maps that packed majority Diné voters into districts for years. It was not until 2017 that maps were redrawn after the tribe sued the county for racial gerrymandering.
The lawsuit required the county to redraw its boundaries and resulted in a majority Native American-led county commission with Kenneth Maryboy and Willie Grayeyes, who are both Diné. There still remain barriers to getting Diné people to the polls during election years.
“There should be pressure on the counties to assist our Navajo voters; they’re supposed to be making voting easier by trying to get as many people to vote, not make it harder,” Nez said.
He also wants the state to work with the tribe for better police responses.
Fighting an expanded Bears Ears
Both tribes say that the governor needs to stop the state’s expected lawsuit over Bears Ears National Monument. A coalition of tribes, including the Navajo Nation, has asked for federal protections to the millions of acres of land filled with cultural and archeological sites from Utah’s Indigenous residents.
That protection is threatened by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who last month selected the law firm Consovoy McCarthy PLLC to possibly file a suit challenging Biden’s order to restore both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments.
On the business front, Cox has been receptive to tribes, including their tribal enterprises. Paul Terry is the CEO of the Cedar Band Corporation, a company set up by the Cedar Band of Paiutes where the tribe is a shareholder. Terry says the tribe would like to be included in a proposed housing coalition to help with the housing crisis in the state.
Terry manages 11 businesses under the Cedar Band Corporation, including CBC Mortgage Agency, which helps with down payment assistance for homeownership, he said.
“We have asked to be placed on Governor Cox’s new Utah housing committee or commission that they’re setting up because we have a mortgage agency,” he said.
Water rights in a drying West
As far as water rights, Jansen added that the governor supports the Utah Navajo Water Rights Settlement Act, which would secure about 81,500 acre-feet of water per year from the Colorado River to the tribe.
Steele confirmed that his tribe is working with both Utah and Nevada under a proposed Federal Water Team that would begin to secure water rights for the Confederated Tribes of Goshute Reservation. The Federal Water Team includes the tribe and states of Utah and Nevada.
“Since time immemorial, we, the Goshutes have lived on this land. In 1863, we had a Treaty of Peace and Friendship, where the United States government acknowledged that we were hunters, chiefs, principle men, and warriors,” Steele said. “Upon creation of our Indian Reservation, the United States government ensured that there were enough resources set aside and protected to fulfill the purposes of the Reservation, which includes water … Goshute water must be protected to preserve the future of our people.”
Teresa Wilhelmsen, Utah’s state engineer, says Utah is working with the Navajo and the Goshute tribes on their water issues.
“Utah supports and prefers negotiated settlement of federal reserved water rights, including Indian reservations. Representatives of Utah have been in communication with representatives of Nevada and the Goshute tribe on the settlement process for the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation,” Wilhelmsen said. “We look forward to working together on this negotiation effort.”