Guilty of hunting without a valid license on non-tribal land
Three men were recently found guilty of illegally killing a mule deer buck on federal land in Montana without a valid license. While Chris Moore had a non-tribal member deer hunting license, it requires him to hunt tribal land only using a tribal guide. Yet, the buck was actually harvested on U.S. Bureau of Land Management Land (BLM) outside of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation boundary.
Moore admitted to tagging the mule deer with a non-member tribal license during the investigation. To obtain this type of license, a hunter is required to use tribal-approved guides and only kill deer within reservation boundaries or on Indian trust lands outside of the reservation, according to AmmoLand.com. Moore, along with tribal guides Chase and Warren Morin, didn’t follow protocol.
All three plead guilty to the crime. Moore was fined $535 and was required to return the mule deer antlers to Montana. Chase and Warren Morin were each fined $135 for their involvement in the incident. Was this only a slap on the wrist or do you think they deserved a harsher punishment?
