There was an unexpected moment during the most recent state legislative session when the leadership of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe asked for a vote to condemn the city of Durango’s effort to insert its decision-making into the external boundaries of the tribe’s reservation.
The possibility of city control over the north end of La Posta Road, which extends into the reservation boundary, without the tribe’s involvement, was what brought this action to the fore.
“A land grab,” the tribe called it (Herald, April 22).
That the tribe would claim that Durango was taking a significant step in moving forward with land development along La Posta Road without its involvement, and went to the Legislature for protection, understandably caught the city by surprise.
Finger-pointing was the result and relations were chilled. The city called the tribe’s move unfair, that it had reached out to the tribe on at least several occasions about the fact that it was looking at La Posta Road and received little or no response.
And, that the possibility of land development along La Posta Road had been reported through the years.
In the eyes of tribal leadership, the city looked not to have appreciated the magnitude of its decision-making within the reservation.
Future development along La Posta Road had been in the news for years, although intermittently. The development along La Posta was included in the city’s 1997 Comprehensive Plan, and stakeholder meetings had taken place from 2007-13, out of which a plan was formed in 2013.
The area’s relatively flat buildable location, above the Animas River at the city’s southern boundary and tied to U.S. Highway 550-160, makes it very appealing. But the cost of infrastructure, water and sewer, and that the several landowners had different views as to whether to go forward, and when, and at what cost, led to continued postponement of any definitive plans.
But recently, landowner appreciation for what might take place surfaced, and city-created sketches appeared of improved streets and housing locations fed by a road that is key to any eventual tribal land development. More critically, the proposed development would put the city into the position of shaping land use within the boundaries of the reservation.
The checkerboard nature of the reservation that occurred early in the 20th century put a good deal of land into private hands, but the reservation boundaries were sacrosanct. La Plata County commissioners, through their planning department, have long determined what private landowners within the boundaries of the reservation can and can’t do, tract by tract.
Broader issues involved collaboration with the tribe and the county, state highway improvements, law enforcement, clean air and water standards and tribal cultural hunting regulations, for example, being agreed on through the years.
Development along the north end of La Posta Road (the reservation boundary line on La Posta Road is at about Moose Lane, the approximate latitude of County Road 220) presented a new issue. It is the one location where the city can insert itself into the reservation.
Relations between the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the city are set to improve, thanks to councilor Gilda Yazzie who included tribal leaders in a proclamation acknowledging National Native American Heritage Month in council chambers earlier this month.
There were statements about shared interests, the importance of the land acknowledgment, and the need to work together.
Going forward, collaboration on the development of La Posta Road could eventually be a high point in city and tribal relationships, righting the initial failure to recognize what one was considering, and its importance to the other. The Herald’s editorial board hopes so, and with no need to involve the Legislature.
