PHOENIX (AP) – A former leader of a tiny Indian tribe in northern Arizona has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and fined $75,000 for stealing nearly $300,000 in tribal funds.
Federal prosecutors say 54-year-old Evelyn James, of Tuba City, was sentenced Dec. 1. She must surrender to authorities by Jan. 15 to begin serving her prison term.
James is a tribal council member of the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe and intermittently served as tribal president.
Authorities say that beginning in 2005, James wrote checks to herself from money drawn on the tribal bank account.
She was indicted in September 2008 on 65 counts related to the theft of money the tribe received from the government.
The San Juan Southern Paiute was recognized as a tribe in 1989. There are only about 300 members, mostly living on the Navajo Reservation and in southern Utah, and the tribe has no land of its own.
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