COLORADO, USA — Camp Hale and the Tenmile Range are now a national monument. Wednesday, President Joe Biden made that designation.
Thursday, the Uncompahgre Band of the Ute Tribe, located in Utah, said the designation is "an unlawful act of genocide."
"I noticed you have representation from the other Ute tribes and that's fine and dandy, but the tribes that were actually impacted or whose lands that belong to, we're nowhere in a discussion," said Shaun Chapoose, chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee. "We were basically just nowhere to be found. So to us it is genocide because it's erasing our history."
Chapoose said Camp Hale and the area around it are their traditional homelands. The Uncompahgre Band and many other Indigenous people were violently pushed out of the area in the late 1800s.
Now, Chapoose and his tribe are in Utah.
He said not being included in the Camp Hale designation was the last straw after decades of mistreatment and broken promises from the government.
"Colorado removed us because they wanted our lands and resources. They forced us over here [to Utah]," Chapoose said. "Now I've got the State of Utah basically doing the same thing on my Uncompahgre end of the reservation. So you know, from our point of view, if we're not careful, we won't even exist."
9NEWS reached out to Gov. Jared Polis and the members of Congress who spoke at Camp Hale Wednesday for comment on this story. Sen. Michael Bennet's office provided letters of support for the designation from the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes, which are located in Colorado.
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