A member of the Ibapah Goshutes allegedly attempted to shoot the tribal chairman and a police officer, federal authorities said. Robert Pete, his brother Clel Pete and a friend were stopped by Goshute officer Jerome Urban Sept. 29 while driving to the tribe’s offices 60 miles south of Wendover, Utah, on the Nevada border. Urban confiscated beer from their truck, provoking an argument and scuffle. When Urban managed to take down and handcuff Robert Pete, his brother drove away and returned minutes later with a rifle, an FBI complaint filed Oct. 4 in Utah’s U.S. District Court shows. Clel Pete allegedly aimed the rifle at Tribal Chairman Milton Hooper and pulled the trigger, but the rifle didn’t fire. He reloaded and aimed for Urban, but the rifle jammed again. The two brothers and a friend, Roger Salas, are in custody in Nevada, charged with resisting a federal law enforcement officer. More than a third of the tribal members eligible to vote recently signed a recall petition for Hooper and council members, questioning handling of tribal money. Some members were particularly angered when the council took away land leases from individual tribal members to provide more ground for a ranching project for 1,200 head of cattle.
