Sunchild sentenced to almost three years

Former Chippewa Cree Business Committee chairman Bruce Sunchild Sr. was sentenced Tuesday at the Missouri River Federal Courthouse in Great Falls to almost three years in federal prison.

Sunchild, 69, was sentenced to 34 months in prison and three years of supervised release for charges of theft, accepting bribes and tax evasion. He must also pay $70,088 in restitution for which he is solely responsible for paying to the tribe and Internal Revenue Service, as well as being jointly responsible with several other co-defendants for $300,000.

Sunchild pleaded guilty in November to the counts and faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison with three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for each of the two separate charges of theft from an Indian tribal organization and tax evasion charge, and 10 years imprisonment with three years supervised release and a $250,000 fine for the bribery charge.

Sunchild served as chairman of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation Chippewa Cree Business Committee in 2011 after his predecessor, Raymond "Jake" Parker, stepped down one day before he pleaded guilty to charges he embezzled from the tribe.

Sunchild pleaded guilty to taking a $25,000 bribe that year after authorizing $300,000 in payments from the tribe to Shad Huston's consulting company in Havre. Huston is a former Havre Public School Board of Trustees president and also has pleaded guilty to charges of embezzlement.

The more recent indictments against Sunchild included four counts of tax evasion and a count of theft for telling the Rocky Boy Health Clinic director to give his son and another person checks for $12,500 in 2012.

James Howard Eastlick Jr. is scheduled to be sentenced today at 1:30 p.m. and Huston is scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

Eastlick, a psychologist from Havre who worked at Rocky Boy, who was charged through the Guardians Project investigations of embezzlement on the reservation, pleaded guilty May 1 to bribery and tax evasion and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.