Randy Oktollik, 27, and Brett Oktollik, 21, agreed to the plea deal with prosecutors. The deal calls for them to serve no jail time for the offense, but to perform community service working with elders and explaining to young children the right way to harvest meat. Randy Oktollik's deal calls for 30 hours with elders and 20 hours with school-aged children; Brett Oktollik's calls for 45 hours with elders and 20 hours with children.
The men must also pay $1,360 in fines and restitution charges.
Both will still be able to apply for a hunting license.
They will be officially sentenced in February.
A third man, Lazarus Killigvuk, was also scheduled to change his plea Friday but did not call in to the court proceeding. He has no phone in his Point Hope home, his lawyer said. Kotzebue Superior Court Judge Richard Erlich gave the lawyer another week to get a message to his client about appearing in court.
The five others charged in the case say they are not guilty and are scheduled for trial the same month.
The Oktolliks were originally charged with two counts, one for wanton waste of big game and the other for failing to salvage the edible meat.
Erlich asked Randy Oktollik the reason he decided to change his plea. "To get it over with, I guess," Oktollik said.
The men were from two hunting parties charged with wanton waste and failing to salvage meat after Alaska Wildlife Troopers responded to a tip and found at least 37 caribou wasted at 25 kill sites stretching along the 40-mile Suicide Trail. Some of the hunters claimed they left the animals because the animals were sick and didn't want to bring bad meat back to their village, Point Hope. The village, population 700, is 330 miles southwest of Barrow.
Local and regional leaders stepped in to support the men after they were charged, saying the case constitutes an attack on Natives' traditional subsistence rights. The North Slope Borough put up $56,000 to pay for the legal defense of the men.
After the Oktolliks changed their pleas, deputy attorney general Richard Svobodny issued a statement. "We take these violations very seriously," he wrote. "An important component of this case has been for the defendants to accept responsibility for their actions. That has not occurred until today with these guilty pleas. We are pleased with this development. ...We are hopeful that others also will accept responsibility for their actions. If they don't, then we will proceed to trial."
The others charged in the case with wanton waste, failure to salvage meat, or both are Point Hope residents Roy Oktollik, 19; Koomalook M. Stone, 19; Chester W. Koonuk, 30; Aqquilluk Hank, 30; and Roy A. Miller Jr., 20.
Brett Oktollik is currently at the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center. At the end of June, he was arrested on multiple charges including firing a gun at a dwelling and third-degree assault.
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