U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby’s recent decision to create new commission boundaries and elections in San Juan County comes after a long legal fight by tribal members to make their votes count in county elections. It may very well produce two Indian commissioners on the three-member commission.
Nowhere in Utah since the arrival of Mormon pioneers 121 years ago has there been an Indian-majority county government. In fact, the white immigrants have dominated from the time of their arrival, and for much of that time they did so not just with the intent of controlling Indians. It was more like cultural extermination.