I’ve said this a number of times here… but if you ever really want to know how the Ute tribe feels about their association with the UofU, just take a trip out to. Duchesne county, and drive around the reservation. They display their affiliation with the UofU prominently and proudly pretty much everywhere you look. Is it money/scholarship related or actual fandom? It might be completely related to the benefits they derive from the relationship, but even if it is, the people that run the Ute tribe will do whatever they can to keep those benefits coming. The Northern Ute tribe is all about financial benefit.
Members of the tribe get $80,000 when they turn 18 years old. I’m told that this is from the federal government (don’t know for sure where the money comes from). They are the only tribe in the states that still gets this sort of reparations money (so I’m told). They were promised this money as restitution when the government breached a contract with the tribe a long time ago not to give/sell land to white people. In order to keep the deal in place the tribe has to limit their membership to people with %50+ Ute blood quantum (which basically means that you have to be more than 50% Ute to get the money when you turn 18, and be a full member of the tribe). If they are that strict about their membership in order to keep that money coming in (if they changed the standard the deal would be off), they will surely do whatever they can to derive whatever benefit they can out of their association with the UofU, if not because they like the UofU, then because they want what is best for their people.
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