 Billy Jo Lara was an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians located in northern North Dakota near the Canadian border . The Spirit Lake Reservation is approximately 90 miles ( 140 km ) south of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation . Lara had married a member of the Spirit Lake Santee tribe and had resided on the Spirit Lake Reservation with her and their children until he was banished from the reservation due to several serious misdemeanors . Lara returned to the reservation , where he was arrested and charged with public intoxication . After the arrest , Bureau of Indian Affairs ( BIA ) officer Bryon Swan took Lara to the police station where Lara was informed of a Sioux order excluding him from the reservation . Lara then struck Swan , who as a BIA officer was considered both a tribal officer and a federal law enforcement officer . 
