PHOENIX (AP) -- One of the leaders of a tiny Indian tribe in northern Arizona has been indicted on 65 counts related to the theft of money the tribe received from the government, the U.S. attorney's office announced Wednesday.

Evelyn James is currently vice president of the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe. The federal indictment accuses the 53-year-old Tuba City resident of telling the government the tribe had hired three police officers using federal funds when it hadn't so it could collect about $400,000 in federal funds.

She's also accused of writing herself tribal checks totaling $300,000 while she was president.

James told The Associated Press that she never wrote checks to herself. She also said everything she did as president was with the approval of the tribal council and that she did nothing wrong.

"I signed the paperwork through the tribal council," James said. "I never acted on my own.

"My tribe knows that somebody just mismanaged the money," she said.

The charges culminated a 15-month investigation by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division. The charges include making false statements, theft of public money and theft from an Indian tribal organization.

"Elected tribal leaders, like all elected public officials, are in a unique position of trust and owe a special duty of care to their constituents," U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa said in a statement. "Where there is a violation of that duty, we have a responsibility to make sure they are held accountable."

The San Juan Southern Piute was recognized as a tribe in 1989. There are only about 300 members, mostly living on the Navajo Reservation and in southern Utah, and the tribe has no land of its own.

Nonetheless, the tribe applied for special federal funding to hire the police officers and the government approved it.

James said the Justice Department was aware that the tribe planned to use the money for police training.

"They said we could hire some (officers), but we told them we couldn't because we didn't have a land base," James said. She said the did hire a police chief.

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