It is for good reason that Southern Utes in last week s election looked again to Leonard Burch for leadership after forcing John Baker from office. In an extraordinary span reaching back to 1966 with only brief constitution-mandated hiatuses, Burch has thoughtfully and steadily lead the 3,200 or so tribal members as the tribe has added to its wealth and opportunities.
Natural gas is at the core of the tribe s prosperity.
But not content with endorsing royalty checks, the tribe, under Burch s leadership, purchased and expanded gas exploration and transmission companies that provide the tribe with greater percentages of the revenues and almost as important, more tribal employment. The tribe has, in recent years, asserted its sovereignty with law enforcement agreements with non-Indian agencies, and agreed on an air pollution compact with the state of Colorado. It wants to define clean water as well, on the reservation. Investments are also aggressively managed, and while elder tribal members now receive increased annual payments, the bulk of the tribe s assets are put to tribal use. After more than a decade and a half of intense lobbying following the quantifying of the water the Southern Utes and Ute Mountain Utes have on the rivers of Southwest Colorado, the Animas-La Plata Project has passed both houses of Congress.