And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Indian artifacts at risk http://www.denverpost.com/news/news1218c.htm By Electa Draper Denver Post Staff Writer Dec. 18 - DURANGO - It's open season on Indian artifacts buried in southwest Colorado, a government archaeologist said, and looting them appears to be a crime that pays. "We've had more cases of theft and vandalism here in the last year and a half than I'd seen in a decade before,'' said Bureau of Land Management archaeologist Kristie Arrington. The problem is made worse, she said, because there is a big gap between what archaeologists estimate as the cultural loss and what federal prosecutors and judges are willing or able to exact from offenders. Two brothers from Cortez were sentenced this month after pleading guilty to hiring a man to use a backhoe to dig up two ancestral Puebloan sites, A.D. 1050 to 1250, that lie next to their land a few miles west of Lewis. Robert Reed and Charlie Reed told the court they didn't know that one site and part of another along the rim of Yellow Jacket Canyon were on BLM land. If the sites had been fully on the Reeds' land, it would have been legal for them to unearth everything except human remains and burial artifacts. Colorado law protects those items regardless of location. Trafficking in Indian artifacts taken from private land may be legal, but it's not ethical, Arrington said. Taking artifacts from public lands is flat-out illegal. Under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act, an offender doesn't have to have criminal intent, BLM investigator David Moore of Denver said Wednesday. For conviction, a person must know he is unearthing Indian artifacts. The Reeds' plea bargains require them to make $5,000 restitution each in the case, and so must the man who did the digging for them, Robert Luther. The Reeds also must serve two years of probation for the felony convictions. Arrington said she estimated damage to the sites, which include roughly two dozen kivas, at $1.9 million, using a formula provided by the resource protection act. The discrepancy between that value and the $15,000 in court-ordered restitution is staggering, she said. "That, unfortunately, is somewhat typical,'' Moore said. He cited a recent case in Utah in which a federal judge rejected the damage assessment by archaeologists for one pillaged site. The implication was that archaeologists were inaccurate in assigning cultural value to the site because of personal biases. Archaeologists can assess damage in two ways. One method is to add up the commercial value of the artifacts and the cost of restoring the site, Arrington said. The other is to assess the archaeological value, which is roughly how much it would have cost archaeologists to have done the job right in the first place. Federal courts perceive archaeological looting as a victimless crime, and they have their hands and prisons full of criminals with more obvious victims, Arrington said. It's often profitable to loot and sell because the commercial value of the artifacts will exceed courtimposed fines and restitution, she said. In the Reeds' case, some artifacts were recovered from a trading post, but the case was complicated by the fact that part of one site was on the Reeds' property, Moore said. The reality, Arrington said, is that the damage done to an Indian ruin out of greed is a crime with countless victims over generations. The knowledge lost could be irreplaceable and therefore priceless. "The archaeological resource is a finite resource that should be protected for the benefit of all Americans,'' she said. "It's wrong to destroy a public resource for personal gain.'' (Anyone bothered by having their ancestors termed a "public resource'????) <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... African Proverb <<<<=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-=>>>> IF it says: "PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...." Please Check it before you send it at: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm
