Banished Teens Run Into Trouble Forest Service Says One Waived Rifle At Two Visiting Officers

One of the two teenagers banished by a tribal court brandished a rifle at two U.S. Forest Service officers who visited him about two weeks ago, according to a Forest Service report.

The other youth had taken an otter without the required license, the report said, and both were violating the law by living on Forest Service land without permission.

The report reveals that at least one of the boys is living on Kuiu Island - a large island northwest of Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest.

The officers contacted the two boys separately after receiving reports that they were illegally living on federal land and were convicted felons possessing firearms.

Simon Roberts and Adrian Guthrie, both 18, pleaded guilty last May to first-degree robbery in a 1993 attack on an Everett, Wash.-area pizza delivery man. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer delayed their sentencing and released them to a Tlingit tribal court in Klawock, on Prince of Wales Island. The tribal court banished the boys for 12 to 18 months.

A Forest Service report says that when the officers approached Roberts’ cabin on Kuiu Island on March 16, the teen shouted a challenge and waved a lever-action rifle.

“Officer (Larry) Heady repeatedly asked him to put the weapon down, which he initially ignored until he became more relaxed with our presence,” said the report, written by Paul Kain.

Byron Skinna, a member of the Tlingit tribal court, said the Forest Service account was inaccurate. Roberts had a rifle on his shoulder when he met the officers, Skinna said.

Both teens have been cautious after being threatened by non-Natives at last summer’s tribal court hearing in Klawock, he said.

They have the weapons to protect themselves from bears and wolves, he said. And Allendoerfer allowed the two to have rifles so they could hunt, Skinna told The Seattle Times.

Roberts was described as “very nervous and on edge.”

“Roberts expressed fears that other Tlingits might seek to do him bodily harm; that they might seek to drown him,” Kain’s report said.

Guthrie, too, voiced concerns for his safety, according to the report. He told the officers that a fishing vessel approached his cabin one night last month. The boat trained a spotlight on the cabin and Guthrie ran into the woods with a rifle.

“The persons on the boat shouted threats that Guthrie should leave the cabin (and) that it belonged to them,” says the report. The report does not reveal the site of Guthrie’s cabin, but it does note both youths are living on Forest Service land.

Skinna said that as far as he’s concerned, the land in question is not federally owned.

“I think it’s still Native land,” he said. “We never signed a treaty over anything.”

The officers told the two youths they were breaking the law by living on the federal land, but did not tell them to leave.

The Forest Service is taking no action until Allendoerfer rules on a motion filed last week seeking an order to take the teens back into custody, said Forest Service spokesman Steve Ambrose.

The motion, filed by the Snohomish County prosecutor’s office, alleges the teens have violated terms of their punishment by possessing firearms and living illegally on federal land.

Skinna says the boys have come a long way and don’t swear as much, keep their homes clean and follow good hygiene.