Federal Court Takes Time for Justice
Mille Lacs Reservation Major Crimes Prosecution
By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR
More often in recent months, serious major crime cases investigated on the Mille Lacs Reservation are being prosecuted in federal court. Criminals will be doing time in federal prisons, resulting in tougher sentences and ultimately reducing drug trafficking in the Mille Lacs communities.
On Thursday, July 7, 2022, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger announced a Minneapolis man had been sentenced to 160 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release for methamphetamine trafficking on the Mille Lacs Reservation.
This case is one of several cases that have been sent to federal court under the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA). In 2016, the Department of Justice granted a request by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe for the United States to assume concurrent criminal jurisdiction on the 61,000-acre Mille Lacs Reservation under the TLOA.
The decision took effect on January 1, 2017. Tribal, state, and county prosecutors and law enforcement agencies continue to have criminal jurisdiction on the reservation.
The Department of Justice has jurisdiction to prosecute certain crimes wherever they occur in the United States — including on the Mille Lacs Reservation.
The change under TLOA expanded this existing jurisdiction to allow federal prosecution of major crimes such as murder, rape, felony assault, drug trafficking, and felony child abuse.
One of the most recent cases tried in federal court is the result of an investigation conducted by the Mille Lacs Tribal Police Department, Meeker County Sheriff’s Office, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Caleb J. Dogeagle and Assistant U.S. Attorney Deidre Y. Aanstad.
Dogeagle has been serving as the Mille Lacs Band Solicitor General since May of 2019. He also serves as the Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Minnesota often prosecuting some of Minnesota’s toughest criminal cases. The United States Attorney’s Office District of Minnesota operates under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice. The office has set prosecution priorities, in the areas of violent crime and narcotics trafficking, Indian country, cyber-crime, national security, child exploitation, and human trafficking. Individuals convicted of crimes in this court are expected to serve the appropriate sentence in federal prison.
According to court documents, between June 2019 and October 2020, Xavier Jerome Buckhanan, 47, conspired with others to traffic methamphetamine and other drugs from Las Vegas to communities in and surrounding the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation. Through the course of the investigation, law enforcement identified multiple packages containing drugs that were sent via the U.S. Postal Service from Las Vegas to a recipient in Eden Valley, Minnesota. On October 19, 2020, law enforcement conducted a controlled delivery of three packages that contained multiple bundles of methamphetamine. Officers arrested Buckhanan when he arrived to retrieve the packages.
The investigation resulted in clearing more than 4.5 pounds of methamphetamine off the streets and out of the Mille Lacs communities.
Buckhanan was sentenced in U.S. District Court before Senior Judge Michael J. Davis. On December 14, 2021, Buckhanan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
Dogeagle has prosecuted other major criminal cases in the Minnesota district federal court that have resulted in lengthy sentences in federal prisons. The week prior to this, another case resulted in a woman sentenced to 107 months prison followed by 4 years of supervision for the defendant’s participation in a major heroin case. Due to ongoing cases involving co-conspirators, the names have not been released in this case.
Earlier this year, on March 24, 2022, Dogeagle co-prosecuted another case that handed another federal prison sentence to a McGregor felon, who was sentenced to 10 years for possession of stolen firearms.
According to court documents, on July 15, 2020, Vaundell Duwayne Kingbird, 32, sold a Hi-Point, model 995, 9mm carbine rifle and a New England Firearm Company, model SB1, 12-gauge shotgun, both with obliterated serial numbers, to an individual for $550. At the time of the sale, Kingbird was unaware that the individual who purchased the firearms was working with law enforcement. Both firearms had been reported stolen on May 29, 2020, from a residence near Kingbird’s home. Kingbird admitted to knowing the firearms were stolen.
On September 16, 2021, Kingbird pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a stolen firearm.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Mille Lacs Tribal Police Department, the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office, and the Lakes Area Drug Investigations Division.
“The Office of Solicitor General and Mille Lacs Tribal Police Department will continue protect and serve our communities,” Dogeagle said. “The ability to prosecute federal crimes in federal court is an important and useful tool to help combat the drug epidemic affecting so many people.”
Dogeagle is enrolled with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and comes to the Mille Lacs Band after having served as supervising legal counsel to the Three Affiliated Tribes of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. He has also been appointed by Governor Waltz to the Commission on Judicial Selection. The Commission on Judicial Selection solicits, considers, and recommends candidates to the Governor for vacancies in the District Trial Courts and the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals. It is a joint commission appointed by the Governor and the Minnesota Supreme Court and includes nine at-large members and four district members from each of Minnesota’s ten Judicial Districts