Ute Tribe alleges Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz engineered secret meetings over Tabby Mountain land

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz allegedly steered many of the backdoor dealings that ultimately kept the Ute Indian Tribe from being able to buy back its ancestral homelands at Tabby Mountain, a new court filings argues. And the tribe alleges he masterminded legislation to prevent the Utes from getting more state property in the future.

The dramatic claims come in a new version of the tribe’s high-profile lawsuit, updated last week with additional information from a whistleblower.

That whistleblower, Tim Donaldson, is a longtime fixture in Utah’s trust lands scene and first filed the complaint that flagged the state’s handling of Tabby Mountain’s proposed sale. Now, he’s shared more details with the tribe’s attorneys for their amended suit.

The tribe cites Donaldson’s assertion that Schultz screamed at him during a 2019 closed-door meeting during the mountain property’s initial sale period.

“Sell it to the tribe and see what happens to you,” Donaldson accused Schultz of threatening, according to the lawsuit.

In addition to Schultz, the tribe adds eight more Utah officials to its list of defendants. That includes state Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, who ultimately ran the bill in 2024 that now gives the Utah Department of Natural Resources first preference for public trust lands sales in the state.

The Utes allege 13 total state leaders were involved in the effort to keep Tabby Mountain and other land from them.

Schultz, R-Hooper, did not respond to several attempts by The Salt Lake Tribune to reach him about the allegations. Neither did Snider.

The allegations about their collaboration widely expand the tribe’s original claims and the depth of what the Utes have now framed as a conspiracy against them.

“State actors once again are diverting land and economic opportunity away from the Ute Indian Tribe,” the filing argues.

The updated lawsuit has the potential to revive the case after major setbacks last year left it on life support.

At that time, U.S. District Judge David Barlow threw out all of the tribe’s claims of discrimination and racism, ruling that because the sale was ultimately suspended — meaning the land didn’t go to any bidder — there was no preferential action based on race.

The state in a court filing also countered that claim, arguing the trust administration has the right to cancel a sale of its lands at any point before a contract is signed.

Barlow separately dismissed Utah Gov. Spencer Cox from being named as a defendant in the case. And all other state claims were barred by a statute of limitations, or legal deadlines.

Additionally, the Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) were also dismissed as defendants, with Barlow ruling those entities had immunity as state agencies.

SITLA owns the surface rights to the Tabby Mountain parcels and had listed them for sale. The agency is tasked with managing its properties, including leasing or selling pieces, to collect the most possible money to benefit Utah’s schoolchildren.

DNR had tried to purchase the property as a hunting haven both so it would remain in state hands and so the state could continue to collect sportsman license fees. But it didn’t have enough money appropriated by the Legislature to outbid the tribe’s $46.9 million offer.

The agency, though, was state leaders’ favored buyer.

“We don’t have to outbid the Indians to buy our own land back,” the lawsuit states Schultz allegedly argued in February 2019, citing Donaldson. The lawsuit adds that DNR also allegedly submitted a $50 million “sham” bid that it didn’t have the backing for, without the intent or ability to actually pay it.

SITLA’s then-director, David Ure, quickly pulled the parcel off the market and suspended the sale. The Utes allege that Ure and others “created a false public record” to make it seem like SITLA had concerns about the appraisal and the amount of time the land had been advertised for sale.

Donaldson recalls former state lawmaker Melvin Brown, then-chair of the Land Trusts Protection and Advocacy Committee and a previous House speaker, allegedly remarking: “Luckily, it helped SITLA cover their butts,” the lawsuit states. Brown is also named as a defendant.

The two agencies, SITLA and DNR, declined The Tribune’s request for comment. But past and present leaders from both agencies continue to be named in the suit.

After the judge’s 2024 ruling, the remaining case had consisted of: a claim of conspiracy to violate the law against then-SITLA director Ure, as well as claims against three Utah officials for allegedly violating the tribe’s constitutional equal protection and due process rights.

The Utah attorney general’s office, which is representing state leaders in the case, also declined to comment. And an attorney for the Ute Tribe said the sovereign nation’s governing Business Committee did not want to comment for this story, instead letting the amended filing speak for itself.

With those updates, the tribe now argues that even more state officials conspired behind the scenes to keep the tribe from buying the property.

Much of that hinges on the new allegations against Schultz and the 2024 bill that hampered the tribe’s ability to compete for public trusts land sales, passed while the initial lawsuit was pending.

The tribe calls that measure retaliation for its Tabby Mountain bid and subsequent fight, the filing states. The Utes are calling on the judge to declare that law unconstitutional and stop it from being enforced.

They also make a landmark argument that Schultz and Snider should be enjoined from drafting any future legislation that would stop the tribe from rightfully buying land. A decision on that could set a major precedent for tribal land rights in the country.

Allegations of threats and falsified public records

The Tabby Mountain area was once part of the Ute Tribe’s Uintah and Ouray Reservation in eastern Utah before it was carved out by the federal government roughly a century ago as alleged “surplus.”

The mountain retains the name of late tribal chief Tabby-To-Kwanah, though, and is a culturally significant spot for collecting medicinal plants and holding religious ceremonies, the Utes argue. The tribe still holds the mineral rights to the land — it just doesn’t own the surface property. It hoped to change that during the sale.

The debate continued for years, the lawsuit says, after the failed sale. By 2021, though, none of the state’s alleged attempts to still convey the parcels to DNR “through land exchanges, conservation easements or other mechanisms” panned out.

That upset state leaders, the lawsuit alleges. In a conversation with Ure and Rep. Snider that included Donaldson, the lawsuit states, Ure allegedly told Snider that he’d try to get Tabby Mountain into state hands sooner or later.

Donaldson said he remembers Snider responding: “You better,” then allegedly threatening to change SITLA’s mandate — with a shift away from supporting schoolchildren — if the agency wasn’t able to.

Snider’s first attempt to do so came with a bill proposal in 2022, which was ultimately pulled. At that time, Donaldson said, he filed his whistleblower complaint. He was then fired from his position.

In May 2023, based on Donaldson’s complaint, the Ute Tribe filed suit.

Schultz was named House speaker shortly after, in late 2023. And during the following legislative session, in early 2024, the tribe says he led the charge to draft new legislation, alongside Snider (who was promoted to House majority leader this year), blocking the Utes from participating in future public trust lands sales.

HB262, which was signed into law by Gov. Cox, changes the SITLA bid process. Now, the Utah DNR has preferential and exclusive first access, without any counters from other private bidders (such as the tribe) to buy the largest SITLA plots up for sale.

The tribe alleges current SITLA Director Michelle McConkie and current DNR Director Joel Ferry also allegedly helped come up with the idea, listing both as defendants.

The law, the tribe argues, is also being used to prevent the Utes from buying property on the Book Cliffs mountain range.

None of the defendants named in the amended complaint had immediately filed a formal response.

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