About Environmental Programs Department

We are the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s Environmental Programs Department, a group of dedicated environmental professionals who are committed to helping the Tribe’s residents and businesses take an active role in protecting and enhancing our rural and ever-changing environment.

We do this by developing practical and diverse environmental programs, providing rapid response and assessment to situations that threaten environment, and educating the public by providing easily accessible information about our programs and hands-on workshops on a wide range of sustainable practices. We strive to make it easy for everyone in Towaoc and White Mesa communities to take care of the Mother Earth.

The Tribe

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT) is one of the 564 federally recognized sovereign Indian Nations and operates under a constitution and a federal corporate charter consistent with the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934. The Tribe’s constitution provides authority to adopt and enforce codes to protect lands and natural resources on the The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Lands (UMUTL) which are currently held in trust for the entire Tribe. The federal government through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has a trust responsibility and a treaty obligation to protect the lands and their natural resources. The UMUT assumes the primary responsibility for the health of its environment.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Lands (UMUTL), located in the extreme Southwest corner of Colorado with small portions extending into Northwestern New Mexico and isolated in Southeastern Utah are the homeland for the Weeminuche band of the Ute Indians. Approximately 2,200 Tribal members live, work and use the UMUTL that encompasses 597,288 acres of trust land, and 27,354 acres of fee land.The UMUTL also are parts of the Montezuma and La Plata counties in Colorado, San Juan County in New Mexico and San Juan County in Utah. The largest portion in Montezuma County borders Mesa Verde National Park to the northeast, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe to the east, the Navajo Nation to the south and west, and a mix of U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands and private lands, including the City of Cortez, to the north. Tribal Headquarters is located in the town of Towaoc, approximately 11 miles south of Cortez in the southwestern corner of Colorado.

The community of White Mesa is isolated from the largest portion of the UMUTL and consists of 8,456 acres of trust land and 4,359 acres of fee lands. White Mesa is 12 miles south of Blanding, Utah on U.S. highway 191. White Mesa is in San Juan County, Utah, and the surrounding property is a mixture of BLM land and state ownership.