Man suspected of stealing Kalispel Tribe artifacts arrested near Yakima
Feb. 4—The man accused of stealing a display of handmade baby moccasins from Northern Quest Resort & Casino over four years ago will face trial in Spokane federal court next month.
Kevin William Wissman, 61, was arrested during a traffic stop in the Yakima area on Jan. 15, court documents said. He is being held in the Yakima County Jail, according to the jail's roster.
A shadow box containing five moccasins and a gauntlet made in the 1940s were stolen in October 2020 from a display case at the Kalispel Tribe's resort and casino in Airway Heights. The incident was caught on security cameras.
Wissman is charged with theft from an Indian tribal organization, a federal misdemeanor. A grand jury in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington indicted him in October 2023.
Wissman evaded arrest for 15 months using a false identity, according to a motion by prosecutors asking that he be detained for risk of fleeing. The court documents said Wissman was previously arrested on a DUI charge, but provided a false name, then failed to appear for a required hearing. When he was apprehended Jan. 15, he reportedly provided the same false name but eventually admitted to being Kevin Wissman. He was also wearing a disguise with two hairpieces stuffed under a beanie to make him look like he had long hair, the documents said.
It wasn't immediately clear what became of the artifacts.
Washington State Department of Corrections' Community Response Unit, serving as part of the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, helped with the arrest, the agency said in a statement.
The task force is led by the U.S. Marshals Service, which collaborated with Kalispel Tribal Police on the investigation. The FBI, U.S. Border Patrol, Yakima County Sheriff's Office and Yakima Police Department assisted with the investigation.
James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
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