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FWP game warden detained 5 1/2 hours

Tribal officers maintain warden was trespassing

A Fish, Wildlife and Parks game warden was detained by Fort Belknap Indian Reservation law enforcement for five-and-a-half hours Saturday, 12 miles west of Hays.

The incident did not occur on tribal lands, but tribal officers maintained that the game warden, Dirk Paulsen, was trespassing. He was threatened to be cited for criminal trespassing and the impounding of his state vehicle.

Mike Volesky, the deputy director of FWP, told the Billings Gazette that tribal officers blocked the warden’s truck from moving while they had a heated conversation and a tow truck was called to take the FWP vehicle away.

The Blaine County Sheriff’s Office was called onto the scene as well, some of the incident could have been captured by the deputy’s patrol vehicle.

Blaine County Sheriff Glenn Huestis said he felt, since the event involved a state officer, it would be best if it was turned over to the Montana Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation.

Paulsen was patrolling the area around 8 a.m. Saturday when he was stopped by the tribal police.

The officers cited a resolution the tribe made in October that denies passage of state Fish, Wildlife and Parks to cross reservation lands unless authorized due to “ongoing actions by the Fish and Game Officers of the State of Montana to ignore the status of Reservation lands and hunting rights in treaty areas and to target enrolled members of the Tribes with focused enforcement activities,” the resolution reads.

 

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