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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis鈥檚 refusal to recognize the Ute Indian Tribe鈥檚 rights under the Brunot Agreement is not merely a policy misstep — it is a repudiation of solemn treaty commitments and a continuation of the genocide committed against our people.

remains binding law. It guarantees Ute hunting, fishing, and gathering rights off-reservation in Colorado and reflects a negotiated commitment that has never been abrogated by Congress.

Colorado recently enacted legislation granting free access to state parks for members of two of our sister signatory Tribes, while excluding the Ute Indian Tribe — descendants of bands that occupied what is today the state of Colorado from time immemorial. Most of the mountainous regions in Colorado are our ancestral homelands.

The governor essentially signed a law last year erasing us from Colorado history. It is a national disgrace, violating those guarantees and erasing the Ute Indian Tribe鈥檚 enduring history and presence on the very lands at issue.

The statute recognizes only the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and provides enrolled members of those Tribes free entrance to state parks. Yet the state鈥檚 enactment and enforcement of this statute ignore the Ute Indian Tribe and its history in the state, despite the reality that most lands covered by the statute fall within our ancestral homelands. When the Tribe asked to be included, state leaders offered reassurances 鈥� and then fell silent.

The Tribe delivered a formal letter requesting inclusion, warning that the bill, as drafted, would perpetuate the erasure of the Tribe and proposing amendments, but after an initial聽 acknowledgment from a bill sponsor, the Tribe never received a substantive response, and the bill passed without addressing its discriminatory impact. This exposes Polis鈥檚 failure as a leader.

This erasure is indefensible in light of the Brunot Agreement抖阴ap text and history. All bands of our Tribe signed the Brunot Agreement of 1874, the same as the bands that now comprise the Southern聽Ute聽Indian Tribe and the聽Ute聽Mountain聽Ute聽Tribe.

Congress ratified the Brunot Agreement on April 29, 1874. The Agreement has never been abrogated by Congress, nor has Congress expressed an explicit intent to do so. Its operative guarantee is unequivocal: 鈥淭he United States shall permit the Ute Indians to hunt upon said lands so long as the game lasts and the Indians are at peace with the white people鈥�.

Those rights run with the Ute people as signatories — every band. Because the Ute Indian Tribe signed the Brunot Agreement, we retain the same Brunot rights as the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute, and the state鈥檚 contrary treatment discriminates among signatories.

Colorado itself recognizes these off-reservation Brunot rights — but selectively. The legislative declaration of acknowledges that, pursuant to the Brunot Agreement, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe retain hunting, fishing, and gathering rights outside their reservations, including in areas that now encompass state parks.

The governor cannot lawfully elevate those Brunot rights for some Ute signatories while denying the same rights to others. The Agreement抖阴ap legitimacy does not turn on which bands were later forced across an arbitrary state line.

This moment is inseparable from a longer history of genocide committed against my people. The聽Ute聽people are the oldest continuous residents of what is now Colorado, a fact even the recent bill acknowledges.

Yet after treaty upon treaty, removal supplanted recognition. In the wake of 19th-century treaties, federal and state actions culminated in the forcible relocation of most of Colorado鈥檚 Utes, and by June 1880, Congress required our Tribe to abandon its homelands and relocate to far smaller reservations in Utah, with removal executed at gunpoint the following year.

This was all against the backdrop of a concerted effort to drive us from our homelands. The rallying cry of the times, one perpetuated by newspapers and government agencies, was 鈥淭he Utes Must Go!鈥� Such coerced displacement did not — and could not 鈥� extinguish rights guaranteed by a still-valid agreement.

Indeed, in 1962 the Indian Claims Commission found the consideration paid under the Brunot Agreement so inadequate as to be unconscionable. The moral and legal imperative today is to honor, not erase, the rights that survived that injustice.

The stakes are legal, cultural, and spiritual. Hunting, gathering, and ceremonies connected to the Brunot lands are integral to聽Ute聽religious and cultural life, with the聽Ute聽people historically returning to familiar hunting and gathering areas year after year. To exclude the聽Ute聽Indian Tribe from access and recognition where those rights and practices endure compounds historical harm and repudiates the very text of the Agreement the State purports to respect.

Gov. Polis should correct course immediately, or he should step down as governor. Recognize the Ute Indian Tribe鈥檚 status as a Brunot signatory; acknowledge its equal off-reservation rights; and ensure state policies, including park access and resource management, respect those rights on the same footing afforded to the other Ute tribes.

At a minimum, the administration should commit to formal consultation and amend current policies to include the Ute Indian Tribe wherever Brunot rights are implicated. Anything less continues the unlawful and discriminatory distinction the state has drawn among coequal treaty signatories.

Colorado can choose to lead — from acknowledgment to action. Honoring the Brunot Agreement across all Ute signatories is not only a legal necessity; it is a long-overdue step toward justice and reconciliation on the Ute homeland.

Shaun Chapoose is the chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee. The Ute Indian Tribe resides on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah. Three bands of Utes comprise the Ute Indian Tribe: the Whiteriver Band, the Uncompahgre Band, and the Uintah Band. The Tribe has a membership of more than 3,000 people.

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