This is not about wheather we register our boats or not. It is about Federal agents coming onto state property and harrassing people over issues that is none of their business, outside of their jurisdiction. That is just the excuse they are using, because it is so common, and nobody does it.
Now that the recent incident has made the papers, we are hearing from other people living in rural areas about how they have been harrassed by Park Service Rangers as well. Then yesterday we got information about another incident that took place earlier this week. A man that lives up in the Nations River, had an altercation with Park Rangers. The family are what is known as Inholders. They had homesteaded the land and built a home before Carter made the area a Federal Preserve. So all around their property is the preserve, but their property is private. The family was out in their yard when park Rangers came up the river in a boat. When the Rangers landed they started asking who he was and what was he doing there. He informed them that he was on his private property and that they needed to leave. He said he was not going to talk to them and get into an argument, for them to just turn around and get into their boat and go away. The Rangers grabbed him, lifted him up, slammed him to the ground. Then they started roughing him up. The homesteaders daughter was so scared she ran away and hid. She thought they were killing her father. They refused to accept anything the Homesteader or his wife told them, saying you are an "Unkown Person" to us and we are keeping you under control until we find out who you are. The park Rangers held the man for four and a half hours handcuffed. Then they released him saying "We are not going to press any charges this time".
Seems the Park Rangers are harrassing other Inholders in this preserve as well. The ones on the Kandik River, the Nations, the Charley and the Yukon. We sent a letter to the Governor yesterday, requesting state intervention on behalf of the inholders, and other residents of Circle, Central, Eagle, Fort Yukon, and others.