NEW TOWN A Colorado man arrested after a standoff in New Town in December has been banished from the Fort Berthold Reservation for the rest of his life.
On Thursday, the Three Affiliated Tribes' business council voted unanimously to banish Michael Jason Smith from the reservation.
Smith, 32, of Centennial, Colo., was arrested Dec. 20 after tribal officials authorized using a front-end loader to smash into a house that Smith was hiding in to dislodge him. Smith had barricaded himself inside the house since the day before during a standoff with law enforcement officers. The house belonged to the Three Affiliated Tribes.
Kyle Lovan, a spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis, said Smith has been charged in federal court.
Smith is charged with two counts of possession of firearms by a convicted felon the December incident in New Town and a June 2012 incident at another location.
Smith was transferred earlier this month from the Burleigh County Jail in Bismarck and now is being held in the Devils Lake Law Enforcement Center in Devils Lake.