Being Indian = excuse for abuse

Trial ordered on charge of lewdnessA man who says he's the leader of an American Indian tribe testified at his preliminary hearing on an attempted-lewdness charge that the 12-year-old girl he's accused of victimizing was promised to him by her mother in exchange for half a cooler of energy bars.

Dale N. Stevens of Vernal said the agreement was reached while the girl and her family were staying in one of his trailers on land owned by his "tribe" in Uintah County in early 2007.

"That's the way Indians do things ... if they're living under their old ways," the 69-year-old said of the trade. "I became her guardian, put it that way, I became her guardian."

Stevens, who was bound over for trial in 8th District Court on charges of burglary and attempted lewdness involving a child following Thursday's hearing, said he is the chief of the Wampanoag Nation. While the federal government does recognize the Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts, it does not recognize Stevens' group, which according to federal court records, was founded in 2003 at an Arby's restaurant in Provo.