Browning men sentenced in wildlife case

Three Browning men were each sentenced to three years probation last week after they pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act for illegally selling tribal wildlife and for theft from a tribal government receiving federal funding.

Gayle Skunkcap Jr., 42, Jessie St. Goddard, 50, and Woodrow Wells, 45, were sentenced June 20 in federal court in Great Falls. They were also ordered to pay restitution of $56,625.

According to an offer of proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carl Rostad and Ryan Weldon, between 2010 and 2011, the three men held four big-game hunts on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation for country musicians participating in an outdoors television show. The three men did not obtain the limited and expensive hunting licenses for non-tribal members to shoot elk, moose, deer and a black bear while using tribal funds and personnel to outfit and guide the musicians, television show hosts and a fly-fishing expert.

Skunkcap was the director of the Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife Department. St. Goddard and Wells were tribal councilmen on the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council. In 2010 and 2011, the Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife Department received more than $220,000 per year in federal funding.

All wildlife on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation is owned by the Blackfeet Indian Tribe and hunting is allowed. Hunting by non-members is a highly regulated activity. Only 5-10 hunting licenses for each big-game species are available to non-tribal members each year, with each license costing between $1,500 and $12,000, depending on the animal.

“These defendants were public officials of the Blackfeet Tribe and leaders in the community who used their positions to steal property from the Blackfeet Tribal Nation,” United States Attorney for Montana Michael Cotter said. “Public corruption is a crime that will be prosecuted by the Montana United States Attorney’s Office whenever it occurs and wherever it is discovered. This prosecution is an example of great investigative collaboration between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Blackfeet Internal Affairs Office.”