Risk-taker set the scene for the modern-day tribal lease position

By Tom Darin Liskey

 26 July 2012 22:59 GMT

LEONARD Burch, then-tribal chairman of the Southern Utes, engineered one of the riskiest experiments in Indian Country capitalism a generation ago, writes Tom Darin Liskey.

Burch and his supporters used windfall monies from a water rights settlement to secure access to profitable hydrocarbon accumulations in south-western Colorado.

The first batch of Southern Ute wells was purchased for only $3 million. The idea behind the initiative was revolutionary in the mineral-rich West, where the scars of the Indian Wars — both physical and psychological — run close to the surface.

Burch and other non-Indian supporters believed that the tribe could create even more wealth for its members by assuming an active role in energy development, rather than…

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