Eight charged in July Caribou massacre that left over 100 animals dead.

Eight people have been charged with indiscriminately gunning down dozens of caribou on the Arctic tundra near Point Hope last summer, sorting through the carcasses and salvaging only the meat from the most pristine animals, according to documents filed in Kotzebue Monday.


Court records describe an opportunistic hunt, with groups of young adults out collecting bird eggs or hunting over the Fourth of July weekend opening fire with .17- and .243-caliber rifles when crossing paths with animals from the massive Western Arctic Caribou Herd.

More than 100 animals were apparently killed. But Alaska Wildlife Troopers traversing the 40-mile Suicide Trail about 25 miles east of town found 25 distinct kill sites in which the meat from at least 37 caribou had been left to rot, with some calves still trying to suckle milk from the decomposing cows.

Confronted by mounting evidence, many of the suspects eventually opened up to investigators and offered a litany of excuses for the kills and wasted meat, the charges say.

In one case, a hunter dressing his kill nicked the animal's stomach, spilling its contents onto the meat and apparently ruining it in the hunter's view, the charges say. Other hunters killed caribou only to find they had been previously shot, or had lumpy livers, or had been hit in an undesirable location like the back. Sometimes, the hunters simply killed more caribou than they could haul back on their ATVs, which were already loaded up with murre eggs.

None of the excuses was good enough, according to troopers, who at one point called the killings "by far the worst case of blatant waste" they had ever seen.

"Alaska law requires all hunters to salvage the edible meat of the animal and does not allow for hunters to leave edible meat in the field based on speculation that the meat is inedible or ruined," the charges say.

Charged with wanton waste, failure to salvage meat, or both are Point Hope residents Lazarus C. Killigvuk, 25; Randy John Oktollik, 26; Roy Oktollik, 18; Brett Oktollik, 20; Koomalook M. Stone, 18; Chester W. Koonuk, 29; Aqquilluk Hank, 30; and Roy A. Miller, 20.

I posted about this terrible story back in July.

At the time I was convinced that it could not have been Alaskans natives who were responsible for such a horrendous waste of life.

But I was wrong. I guess it is true that people are just people, and there are both good and bad people in every culture or ethnicity.

I feel very badly for the Alaskan native community of Point Hope, but I am especially upset that it looks as if that village tried to cover up the truth when they launched their own investigation.

A very sad day for Alaska indeeed.