The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Utah has filed suit accusing a group that calls itself the Uinta Valley Shoshone Tribe (UVST) of selling fake licenses that purport to allow hunting and fishing on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Salt Lake City’s U.S. District Court, is seeking a declaration that UVST and its officers are engaging in wire fraud, as well as an order barring them from issuing the licenses. In addition, the suit asks that already-issued licenses be declared void.
“The Ute Tribe is the only tribal entity authorized to issue hunting and fishing licenses within the reservation,” a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office says. “The Uinta Valley Shoshone Tribe is not recognized by the United States and has no legal authority over the lands or resources within the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.”
The group and its officers — a chairwoman, director and wildlife director — are working with many others to issue and use the licenses, according to the suit.
The suit says officers with Ute Fish and Wildlife and the Utah Divison of Wildlife Resources began receiving information about the licenses, which sell for $25, in September 2016.
UVST had established a “wildlife department” in 2016 and sold approximately 68 licenses to kill deer and elk, the suit says. It says the group also has been issuing fishing licenses for use on tribal trust land.
One of the officers has been using a Facebook page that has more than 100 members to advertise the licenses, the suit says.
The suit alleges UVST falsely states on the license application form that the group is a federal corporation doing business as the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservations. The defendants also have told licensees that Ute tribal trust lands belong to UVST and that no entity can stop them from hunting or fishing on those lands, according to the suit.