[Aztlan] New Developments in Enforcement of Looting and Artifact Trafficking Laws

[Scott Speal]

It seems particuarly relevant to note here on Aztlan given recent
conversations that those who traffic in artifacts (including Mesoamerican
art) are every bit as much a part of the problem, and every bit as much
criminals in many countries, as those who are guilty of defiling the site
themselves.


Artifacts Sting Stuns Utah Town /
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106091937
by Howard Berkes


Morning Edition, July 1, 2009 · Dozens of armed federal agents swept into
Blanding, Utah, on June 10, arresting 17 people there and ending a two-year
federal sting aimed at a black market in ancient American Indian artifacts.
Three weeks later, anger and grief persist.
"There's going to be a scar for a long time," says Lynette Adams, a retired
schoolteacher in the predominately Mormon town of 3,600. "There are some
pretty strong feelings — not about what people are being accused of, but how
they were arrested."
The agents from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Land Management wore body
armor, waved weapons, screamed instructions and shackled neighbors at the
wrists, ankles and waists, according to witnesses. And they did that with
suspects who ranged from 27 to 73 years old.


List Of Suspects Includes Prominent Townspeople
"These aren't terrorists," Adams complains, her voice rising. "They're not
rapists and murderers."
Those targeted include a high school teacher (the county sheriff's brother),
a member of the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame and the town's most prominent
physician. Dr. James Redd, 60, was found dead a day later — an apparent
suicide.
"The government set it up and entrapped them and killed them," says Austin
Lyman, a caseworker at Blanding's senior center with three brothers among
the arrested. Redd was Lyman's lifelong friend and physician.
"I blame them for Dr. Redd's death," Lyman adds, as he cradles a photo of
his friend, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "He wouldn't have done
it without the shame and the guilt, and the stuff they put him through there
at his house."
Another suspect who was not from Blanding also committed suicide. Steven
Shrader of Santa Fe, N.M., died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound near his
mother's home in Illinois.
Shrader, Redd and the others arrested were indicted by a federal grand jury
in Salt Lake City. They faced more than 100 felony counts of theft of
government and Indian property, and trafficking in protected artifacts.



'Significant Collections' Taken From Public Lands
Investigators enlisted the assistance of an unnamed informant for two years,
who used $335,685 in federal funds to buy 256 ancient American Indian
artifacts from the defendants.
"This case involves significant collections of Indian artifacts taken from
public and tribal lands by excavators, sellers and collectors, including
priceless artifacts sacred to Native Americans," says Brett Tolman, the U.S.
Attorney in Utah.
Tolman's office defended the use of force in a written statement describing
the "standard operating procedures" agents must impose, as well as the
circumstances of the arrests.
The statement described some of the circumstances as "the nature of the
criminal charges ... the defendant's criminal history, the presence of
firearms or other weapons in the defendant's residence ... the need to
protect the safety of the agents and any other occupants ... and the need to
prevent the destruction or concealment of evidence."


Town Reaction Is Mixed
Some in Blanding are forgiving about the federal show of force. "It would
certainly seem to be overkill," says Bob McPherson, a former Mormon bishop
and former vice president of the College of Eastern Utah in Blanding. "Some
of the people you're arresting ... [are a] 72-year-old, [a] 71-year old ...
but [federal agents] don't know the people, and so you follow procedures ...
because the FBI agents want to go home to their wife and kids, too."
McPherson also knew Redd well, and he and other friends don't believe the
artifacts raid alone prompted the suicide. No one would explain further, but
Redd went though a long artifacts prosecution before and was eventually
acquitted.



A History Of Artifact Hunting
Artifacts have been part of Blanding life since the town was founded in 1905
by Lyman's grandfather. In fact, the digging, collecting and selling of
artifacts predates Blanding. The surrounding region of skyscraping
mountains, desert mesas, and steep and narrow canyons is believed to have
one of the highest concentrations of artifacts in the world. Homes and
businesses in Blanding sport displays of artifacts that rival some museum
collections.
Museums, archaeologists and collectors "back east" first hired locals to dig
for artifacts a century ago. "Pothunting," as it came to be known, persists
as a popular regional subculture. Congress banned all but scientific
excavations on federal and Indian land, and some people shifted to private
land, where digging continues to be legal. But illegal collecting persisted.

"It was just a field day," McPherson says. "And people would go in there, in
some cases with bulldozers and backhoes and shovels ... It'd be fair to say
that there was a feeling of us-against-them, and it's our land, and our
forefathers were here, and we have this right."
But McPherson and others in Blanding say there's no evidence that digging
continues on that scale. "That's not going on now," McPherson adds with
confidence, noting that the two-year federal sting netted just 17 people
from Blanding. "This does not define Blanding."
Still, the sense of entitlement persists, according to Bruce Adams, a
farmer, rancher and county commissioner, because artifacts are so common in
the region.
"There are artifacts all over this county. There are artifacts in every
farmer's field. There are artifacts on every trail," Adams says. And if
"somebody saw half of a pot out of the ground, most of them would dig it up
and take it home because it's a treasure, and they found it."


Changing The Artifact-Hunting Tradition
"We still have these persistent notions that it's OK to collect stuff from
the surface," says Winston Hurst, an archaeologist and Blanding native. He
points to school field trips and Boy Scout hikes in which kids are
encouraged to pocket arrowheads or broken pieces of pottery.
Hurst adds that until recently, Boy Scouts in the area were taught how to
dig artifacts as they earned an archaeology merit badge. "The whole emphasis
is again still on finding things and taking them home," Hurst says. But he
also reports a recent shift a week after the raid.
Boy Scouts working on the merit badge then were given a museum tour, where
they learned about leaving artifacts alone so that the historic and
scientific record is preserved.
The scouts visited the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding,
which is the official repository of artifacts recovered from federal land in
southeastern Utah. An exhibit there celebrates hikers who find intact pots,
baskets, bowls and other artifacts and notify authorities.
"They have an ethic about protecting and preserving cultural resources,"
says Teri Paul, the museum's director. "They believe that these things ...
belong to everyone and need to be protected. And they don't belong to any
one person to take away and sell."
County Commissioner Bruce Adams considers the difference between those who
leave artifacts in place and those who take them home.
"Some people have a strong sense of personal ethics and value things more
than others," Adams says. "Some people find a wallet on the streets of New
York. It has a hundred dollars in it ... One guy turns it in; the other guy
takes [the money] out and throws the wallet in the trash and he's gone. Why?
I don't know."

A Part Of Town Culture
The June raid is already becoming part of Blanding's cultural history. The
town's annual July Fourth melodrama is incorporating ad-lib lines that refer
to the raid. That also happened in 1986, when another artifacts raid shocked
the community. No one charged then was convicted, and prosecutors were
forced to return some of the artifacts seized from private collections.
This year, the heroine tells the villain, "You'd steal the pennies from a
dead man's eyes, and storm into their homes and take artifacts."
And when another character is handed a bowl, he whips out a map and says,
"Show me exactly on this map where this bowl came from." That's how the
undercover dealer in the artifacts sting had suspects show the illegal
origins of their artifacts.
"There are some things that we can laugh at," says retired schoolteacher
Lynette Adams, who is directing the melodrama. "We've got to be able to get
it behind us."

-- 
C. Scott Speal
NAVFAC Washington
US Naval Academy - Public Works
181 Wainwright -- Halligan Hall
Annapolis MD 21402
scott.speal at navy.mil