And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: <+>=<+>KOLA Newslist<+>=<+> Subject: Seminole Tribune story Reedy site Date: Thu, 4 Nov 99 16:35:08 -0500 From: Mark Madrid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reedy Burial Site Being Destroyed Hudson Florida. On Saturday October 30 representatives of the American Indian Movement of Florida and other supporters of American Indian issues gathered on the side of a small dusty gravel road just off highway 19 in the rapidly developing area of Pasco county Florida known as Aripeka. The protest was to call attention to the destruction of a known American Indian burial site. The current owner of the property Mr. John Deiter of Deiter Cadillac is selling the land that contains the graveyard to the Castle Keep Storage Company. Castle Keep hopes to expand their facility and build self storage rental bays on the location. Last September in what appeared to be a rush to bulldoze over the grave sites before they were noticed, the company that was hired to do the work T.L Hunt Construction, cut a swath through the middle of one of the larger mounds at the site to begin construction of holding ponds, prompting concerned neighbors to contact the office of the Florida American Indian Movement. AIM reported Hunt Construction to the Sheriffs office at that time. This is not the first time that AIM has been to this site. In 1994 neighbors of the grave yard contacted AIM after a group of non Indian people, calling themselves the Lower Muscogee Creek Panther Bend Tribe and posing as Florida's original Indian people arrived at the site claiming that this was the burial site of their tribe. They stated that they were there to protect the site and that in order for them to do that they would build a bingo and gaming facility on the site. They stated that God had turned them white and that the darker colored Seminoles and Miccosukee people that lived to the south were just their decedents. One of the neighbors, a Mrs. Peno Hardesty didn't believe the groups claims and contacted the Pasco Community Collage and asked if there was an archeologist that they could recommend to asses the site. The college referred her to the curator of a local private museum near the Moon Lake area called the "Concourse". The curator, Mr. John Rabb informed Mrs. Hardesty that he had just been hired by the "Daytona Community Collage" to survey the site. Mrs. Hardesty video taped Rabb digging up human jaw bones, skull fragments and other bones. Hardesty said, she had hoped that video evidence of human remains on the site would influence Florida states archeologist for the Division for Historical Resources, Jim Miller to take action to enforce the Florida state law and federal laws against disturbing American Indian burials. According to Haresty she became suspicious of Rabb's technique when she noticed that he wasn't cataloging any of the evidence but stuffing some of it into his pockets and tossing larger pieces into his van. Her suspicions grew further when she latter went to Rabb's residence and saw hundreds of boxes stacked from floor to ceiling that Rabb bragged he had collected from Indian burial sites across the country, including the very site they had just visited. In trying to verify Mr. Rabb's claims of being hired by Daytona Community College, AIM of Florida was to find out that there is no such facility. There is however a Volusia Community Collage, but they have no record of any contact with a John Rabb or of hiring anyone to survey a burial site in Pasco county. Further Mr. Rabb had stated that he had graduated from the University of Arizona. On contacting the collage, their records indicate that there was never anyone enrolled, or graduated from the University of Arizona by the name of John Rabb. However there had been an employee by that name during the time period that Rabb had claimed he had taken courses and graduated. A Mr. John Rabb had been employed as the school custodian. Upon further investigation it was found that the private museum, the Concourse that Rabb was the curator for, was operated by the Panther Bend group that he indeed was a member of. Jim Miller the state archeologist was informed of this matter, and given the video tape of Rabb's activities. In response to the violation of state and federal law, Miller stated that since Rabb wasn't a "real" archeologist that it didn't count, and that he would not take action. The state never followed up on the investigation and at this time Rabb is still in possession of untold amounts of Native American Indian human remains. In a statement from the AIM legal research department "We fail to see the point of law that Mr. Miller is referring to, as there is no provision for non professional or "not real archaeologists" stated or implied in the law. This line of reasoning would open all cemeteries to ghouls and grave robbers in that if the persons involved in the action weren't a professional or REAL archaeologists they would have an open license to rob any grave they wanted to. In the latest action involving the Reedy Mound burial grounds, AIM of Florida filed a complaint of desecration of a state designated Indian Burial Mound (8PA214), with the county and this matter is currently under investigation. According to Florida State Law, Section 872.5, desecration of an Indian Burial Mound is a 3rd degree felony. On Monday, October 25, 1999, a state archeologist, who was doing a thorough and professional survey, was suddenly ordered by Miller to another job. This was after the archeologist found significant evidence to extend the northern boundary of the grave yard area. Until that time, the state and county had argued that the swath T.L. Hunt made through the center of the mound did not violate the law - that is, according to their map. The recent evidence deputes that claim. When questioned by Ruby Beaulieu, White Earth Chippewa and a Pasco resident for the last five years, as to why a complete survey was not done, Mr. Miller's reply was "I didn't say it wouldn't be done - I said it MAY be done in the future but it can't be done now." When Mrs. Beaulieu asked "When is the future - when construction is complete"? Miller didn't respond. Miller stated that he had given the pit that the construction company had started digging for the retention pond a cursory examination and didn't see any signs that Native American remains had been disturbed. According to Beaulieu and others at the site there was clear evidence that just a few feet away from where the tractors had stopped digging the pit, there was a freshly dug hole with bone fragments clearly evident. For years, looting, purchase, sale or barter of Native American human remains and funerary objects has been a very lucrative business. Disturbance or desecration is a felony but it still goes on. As early as yesterday, evidence of a recent dig inside the mound was discovered and reported to the County Sheriff's Office. Jim Miller admits that looting has gone on for years at the mound yet has taken little or no action to protect this or any Indian burial site in the state. T.L Hunt Construction said the holding ponds are required by the Department of Transportation to keep a nearby road right away from being flooded in case of a 100- year flood. The DOT has since recalculated the storm water retention requirements for the site and determined that the pond is no longer necessary. The new survey will allow the extension of the boundaries of the grave yard to be expanded another 30 to 40 feet. According to Miller, an archeologist will do another examination of the site as work progresses, and reexamine an area that was covered by a two story tall pile of dirt that was excavated from the pond site. A spokesman from the Information Office of the American Indian Movement of Florida said, We hope that Mr. Miller continues to perform his duties and responsibilities as the state of Florida's archeologist. What we are concerned with is the unequal enforcement of the law when it comes to the common respect given the burial sites of American Indian's as opposed to the non Indian communities. We know for a fact that if an individual were to dig up a grave from the local cemetery and attempt to sell the skulls and body parts for whatever reason they would be prosecuted by the law. We have seen that in the local Bay area. Teenagers vandalizing headstones in Bartow, wiccans stealing skulls from graves in Plant City, even a sprinkler company that had trenched through several graves of infants in Tampa and tossed the bodies into the trash, they were all brought before the legal system. That's all we're asking for ... The same consideration, the same respect. <+>=<+> http://users.skynet.be/kola/ http://kola-hq.hypermart.net <+>=<+> Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
