Don't answer your door if you kive in Blanding today

[Brewhaha]

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6771105

[ilanimaka]

Ouch. That's gonna suck for some folks. :ne_nau:

[Mtnman1830]

And I thought you were giving a warning about the missionaries are out and about...

[Iceaxe]

23 arrested in archeological artifacts bust
June 10, 2009

SALT LAKE CITY -- Federal authorities have arrested 23 people in connection with the theft of archaeological artifacts in Utah's Four Corners area, KSL Newsradio has learned.

Sources said a dozen indictments have been handed down by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City over the past several months alleging the theft of archaeological and cultural artifacts from public and Indian lands in southeastern Utah. The indictments were unsealed in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City Wednesday morning.

A news conference was held to announce the bust. The news conference featured Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Indian Affairs Secretary Larry Echohawk, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah.

[DiscGo]

I read about this earlier but I had no idea that they were older adults. I expected it was a bunch of kids.

[stefan]

I read about this earlier but I had no idea that they were older adults. I expected it was a bunch of kids.

just keep in mind utahns have a long history of robbing archeological sites all over utah

[asdf]

just keep in mind utahns have a long history of robbing archeological sites all over utah

both legal and illegal robberies

[Iceaxe]

Not to be a smartass.... but I think you could just about arrest everyone in Blanding and Bluff for this. I'm not sure if I have ever met anyone from there who was local that didn't have a couple of treasures stashed away somewhere.

[Sombeech]

Everything belongs to the government. They know how to take care of stuff much better than anybody. PLEASE SAVE US.

[Sombeech]

This belongs in a Museum

http://www.jonathanpthomas.com/thebroomcupboard/wp-content/indiana_jones_raiders_1.jpg

[Sombeech]

OK, one more jab and then I'll be quiet for a very short period of time.

Lyle's gonna get busted:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Ud57xZ8Bo

[accadacca]

OK, one more jab and then I'll be quiet for a very short period of time.

Lyle's gonna get busted:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Ud57xZ8Bo
:nono: :haha:

[Iceaxe]

FBI charges 24 in American Indian artifact looting case
Feds: Southern Utah history stolen from the Four Corners area.
By Patty Henetz - The Salt Lake Tribune


For two years, someone close to a large network of archaeological looters in southeastern Utah was wired with an audio-visual recorder when buying ancient baby blankets, stone pipes, seed jars, digging sticks, pots, even a pre-Columbian menstrual pad.

This "Source," as he or she is identified in a search warrant affidavit unsealed Wednesday, is an insider who worked with U.S. Bureau of Land Management and FBI special agents to nab two dozen suspects in the theft and sale of more than 250 American Indian artifacts from the Four Corners area.

Most of the suspects come from San Juan County, and some familiar names have emerged, including Blanding residents James and Jeanne Redd, who previously were prosecuted for stealing and dealing artifacts that lie scattered across remote public lands. The list also includes a 78-year-old man recently inducted into the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame.

The undercover purchases cost $335,685, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman announced Wednesday. But new Bureau of Indian Affairs head Larry EchoHawk, a former Brigham Young University law professor, said the artifacts were worth much, much more.

"These articles are really priceless," EchoHawk said during a news conference in Salt Lake City. "You can't put a dollar figure on them."

But that's what 55-year-old San Juan High teacher David Lacy of Blanding did, according to a search warrant that federal authorities said was representative of affidavits filed in cases against him and 23 others.

The investigation began in November 2006. Then, in March 2007, the Source signed on to help the feds. On Dec. 11, 2007, the informant and Lacy met at Lacy's home, according to the search warrant, where the tipster paid $1,500 for a blanket woven with yucca fiber twisted with turkey feathers.

This informant also paid $900 for an atlatl weight, an artifact that may have been used in weaponry, and a knife for $2,800. Although the relics were from public lands, Lacy allegedly provided the Source with phony papers about where he found them.

The two huddled again in January 2008 at Lacy's storage shed. There, the court papers say, the informant paid $1,500 for a menstrual-pad loincloth and a basket fragment Lacy said he had taken from Bullet Canyon near the Grand Gulch wilderness area.

The Source also shelled out $1,700 for two sandals Lacy said he dug up from the Baby Mummy Cave burial site in Cottonwood Wash, the affidavit says. The sites are on public land, but Lacy allegedly signed a letter saying the artifacts were from private land.

Also charged were Loran St. Claire, 47, Monticello; Rulon Kody Sommerville, 47, Monticello; Kevin W. Shumway, 55, Blanding; Sharon Evette Shumway, 41, Blanding; Aubry Patterson, 55, Blanding; Dale J. Lyman, 73, Blanding; Raymond J. Lyman, 70, Blanding; Vern Crites, 74, Durango, Colo.; Marie Crites, 68, Durango; Steven Shrader, Durango; Tammy Shumway, 39, Blanding; Joseph Smith, 31, Blanding; Meredith Smith, 34, Blanding; Harold Lyman, 78, Blanding; Reese Laws, 27, Blanding; Nick Laws, 30, Blanding; Brandon Laws, 38, Blanding; Tad Kreth, 30, Blanding; Brent Bullock, 61, Moab; David Waite, 61, Albuquerque, N.M.; and Richard Raymond Bourret, 59, Durango.

The list -- totaling more than 115 felony counts and a handful of misdemeanors -- includes people prominent in their communities. Harold Lyman, for example, works at the Blanding Visitors Center, has been inducted into the Utah Tourism Hall of Fame and helped establish the "Trail of the Ancients," a scenic byway taking motorists past American Indian sites in Utah and Colorado. Lyman did not return a call seeking comment.

Officials haven't yet issued an arrest warrant for Lyman, but he will get a summons to appear in federal court for arraignment.

Michael Wingert, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Utah, said the 23 defendants arrested Wednesday were detained at the Grand County Jail before appearing in front of U.S. Magistrate Samuel Alba. All but two, Aubry Patterson and Tammy Shumway, were free by day's end. The defendants had to guarantee they would stay away from federal or tribal lands and protect any artifacts they still possess.

News of the arrests caused a stir around Blanding. Holly Shumway, whose in-laws were among those charged, said most of the defendants are nice people.

"They are your everyday average neighbor," she said.

"Some of the men arrested who are in their 70s, that is what they used to do as kids," Shumway added. "It wasn't illegal. It's just something everyone does in Blanding. There are artifacts everywhere. You can walk out into some people's backyards after a good rain and find arrowheads."

Shumway said authorities should check their priorities. "There are gangsters and drug dealers out there and people actually causing harm to their communities," she said, "and this is what the feds spend their time on -- ransacking people's houses who aren't hardened criminals."

But Winston Hurst, a Blanding archaeologist who has helped document cultural sites near Bluff and Blanding, said he welcomes the crackdown to preserve what's left of "a fragile and severely damaged record of 13,000 years of human experience that left no written history."

If the defendants are guilty, Hurst wrote in an e-mail, they deserve the consequences.

"It is no longer acceptable to plead ignorance or innocence of the importance of the archaeological record, our need to preserve it or the laws that our society has passed to protect it," he wrote. "Anyone who doesn't get it is inexcusably clueless. Having said that, I don't think most of these people are stupid, and expect to find that there are some very nuanced back stories, and that some of the charges are based on misinformation."

FBI Special Agent in Charge Timothy Fuhrman of the Salt Lake City field office said the illegal trade is a multimillion-dollar industry. "They are people who know what they are doing," he said. "There's a network."

Tolman vowed such buying and selling of history would stop. "Those who remove or damage artifacts from public lands take something from all of us," he said. "They take something that can never be replaced."

"You look at the people involved," Tolman added, "and it has been pervasive."

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, applauded the indictments. "This law enforcement action," he said, "is a clear indication of the seriousness with which the Obama administration treats its responsibility as steward of our public lands."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said at the news conference that the administration has put protecting cultural and archaeological resources "front and center" and assured tribes that the BLM and FBI would take proper care of the items they confiscated.

A 2008 BLM report says the agency began several looting investigations last year and is continuing work begun at least nine years ago that discovered a connection between artifact thefts and methamphetamine trade in the West.

Tolman declined to say whether the Utah probe showed drug links, but said more charges and additional defendants could be found during what is an ongoing investigation.

The 2008 report also noted that someone chiseled a petroglyph known as the "one-legged man" off varnished rock near Colorado City, Ariz., in the Cottonwood Point wilderness area. That investigation is ongoing.

Utah has a history of agents chasing down looters, too.

Blanding doctor James Redd and his wife, Jeanne, in 1996 were accused in state court of desecrating the grave of an ancient Indian while pot hunting in Cottonwood Wash near Bluff. An appeals court struck down the felony charges because, under Utah law, prosecutors had to prove the body was intentionally buried at the site -- and they couldn't.

In 1995, Moab resident Earl Shumway was found guilty of stealing sandals, a sleeping mat and an infant's burial blanket from the Dop-Ki Cave in Canyonlands National Park and the Manti-LaSal National Forest. He was sentenced to 5

[Jaxx]

Wow! sounds like they found some really cools stuff. Blankets, sandals, etc. But did I understand correctly that they found the sandals from digging up a baby mummy grave? Unbelievable.

[stefan]

Shumway said authorities should check their priorities. "There are gangsters and drug dealers out there and people actually causing harm to their communities," she said, "and this is what the feds spend their time on -- ransacking people's houses who aren't hardened criminals."

some would consider theft of antiquities to be far more serious than anything this guy mentions.

of course, his attitude is one of the main roots of the problem behind why we are losing our antiquities and why our rock art and ruins are degrading.

[Brewhaha]

Regardless of your personal beliefs about antiquities this will eventually hurt everyone of us by inspiring the feds to restrict our access to public lands even more for all kinds of activities.

[tmartenst]

I think it is a good thing because it shows the seriousness of it. Hopefully it will help others to think twice.


Regardless of your personal beliefs about antiquities this will eventually hurt everyone of us by inspiring the feds to restrict our access to public lands even more for all kinds of activities.

Speaking of, we are going down to Road Canyon and to Moon House this weekend. Think we'll have any issues or will this be hung up in the courts only?

[CarpeyBiggs]

obviously, some of these folks realize how significant their actions were... one of them was found dead this morning, apparent suicide. dr. in the community.

sad day know matter how you look at it.

[coinslab]

I say leave where found in this case. I heard i don't know if it's true or not but a museum in blanding didn't have enough space so they started smashing pots and putting them in ziplocks and setting them wherever they could.

[James_B_Wads2000]

Regardless of your personal beliefs about antiquities this will eventually hurt everyone of us by inspiring the feds to restrict our access to public lands even more for all kinds of activities.

So the take home message from people looting and selling antiquities is fear the federal government? :ne_nau: Bin livn

[Scott P]

But did I understand correctly that they found the sandals from digging up a baby mummy grave?

Yes, most of this (other than arrowheads, matates, etc.) is found in the midden heaps, where bodies are also buried.

It sounds like several people want to make this an issue of big government picking on the small town folk, but for those that don't think that this is that serious, think of it this way.

How would you (meaning anyone that is a member of this site) feel if someone went out and dug up your dead parent, grandparent, daughter or whoever and busted open their coffins and stole their wedding rings, stripped them of their clothing, etc. and went out and sold them? I think the outcry would be huge if the shoe was on the other foot and someone went out and dug up the Blanding (or any other town) cemetary or something similar.

[Brewhaha]

James - First, it doesn't matter if you live in a small town or a big city, if the feds restrict access then everyone is up the creek. Second, it's not just the people who live in small towns who are starting to fear the interference of the federal government.

Edited to remove stuff I don't wish to endlessly argue about.

[James_B_Wads2000]

it's not just the people who live in small towns who are starting to fear the interference of the federal government.

Yeah you tea-baggin

[Brewhaha]

Yes, indeed, watch out for the revolution by some folks down here - not me though. While I think the feds were a little over the top with some of their actions I don't have a problem with them doing something to protect their property. So, sorry, you don't get to lump me in with some of the angry folks down here.

As for restricting access to public lands it's not mentioned in the stories. But, anyone who isn't using their ass for a hat should be able to see some possible consequences and understand that when public lands are abused in any way then the feds have a tendency to impose more restrictions, policies, and rules. You don't have to take my word for it though. Do a little research on why we have a permit system in ZNP, do a little research on why roads are being closed across the nation. Do a little research on wildlife management. Hell, do a little research on anything before you start typing next time and you just might learn something.

[Iceaxe]

But, anyone who isn't using their ass for a hat should be able to see some possible consequences and understand that when public lands are abused in any way then the feds have a tendency to impose more restrictions, policies, and rules.

I agree.... no matter how this ends I'm pretty sure it will end up bad for me, Joe Six-pack..... it always does....

......which really sucks when you think about it because the only thing I have ever taken is a picture.

:popcorn:

[tmartenst]

......which really sucks when you think about it because the only thing I have ever taken is a picture.

I bet you've taken a leak too.

[Cirrus2000]

......which really sucks when you think about it because the only thing I have ever taken is a picture.

I bet you've taken a leak too.
Nah, he leaves those. :nod:

[James_B_Wads2000]

As for restricting access to public lands it's not mentioned in the stories. But, anyone who isn't using their ass for a hat should be able to see some possible consequences and understand that when public lands are abused in any way then the feds have a tendency to impose more restrictions, policies, and rules. You don't have to take my word for it though. Do a little research on why we have a permit system in ZNP, do a little research on why roads are being closed across the nation. Do a little research on wildlife management. Hell, do a little research on anything before you start typing next time and you just might learn something.

Well let me be the first one to tell you the times are a chanin

[Brewhaha]

If you would read my posts carefully and thoughtfully you would see that I'm not opposed to some regulation. I'm definitely not the anti-fed nutbag that you seem to think. I'm simply dreading the day when the hoops that one has to jump through become too numerous to make it worthwhile. Or even worse, the day when there are no hoops at all to jump through because there is no access.

[Iceaxe]

[b]Another suicide in American Indian artifacts looting case
Federal raid

[Rented mule]

Archeologists are no more than "licensed" grave robbers.
Many of our artifacts will never ever be seen by anyone. They are locked up in museum storage facilities all the way to Europe. How sad.
I recently stopped at a roadside dig site right outside of Great Basin Natl park. Nothing remains. They concreted the areas over. The artifacts, some even were considered toys of children are never going to be viewed by you or me. Curious, I went to the Great Basin Natl Park visitor's center hoping to see a shadowbox display or some information. Bupkis. They know nothing of the wereabouts of the artifacts of that dig site.
The one they are doing in Zion? Where will we view the artifacts or the
notes they are taking? hmmmm you have to pay over 100 dollars to help
sherpa the site each year. hush hush The Govt has flooded lake powell before they could even get everything out in a sensible, decent manner.
Many artifact couldn't be retrieved before the waters buried them forever.

Can you go see the stuff at U of U? unless you are an archeologist, I think not. I've been here 11 years and never been invited to a showing
or presentation. Yay govt!!

We, sadly have run roughshod over the natives since we landed,
and will continue to disrespect. What if they came into my house and stole my family's historical momentos and tools? They wouldn't....
We would

[trackrunner]

bump

reportedly the informant source committed suicide yesterday

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9870909

Source in artifact case apparently commits suicide
March 2nd, 2010 @ 4:46pm
SALT LAKE CITY -- The undercover operative who helped federal officials build a case against more than two dozen people for allegedly looting American Indian artifacts in the Four Corners area has apparently committed suicide.

This development has been stunning for people on all sides of this complex legal battle. Prosecutors still haven't confirmed the man who committed suicide is their informant; a spokeswoman says they "will not discuss confidential sources."

But the death is giving defendants new hope of overturning their cases. The name and age of a man who shot himself Monday night in Holladay matches that of the informant. . .

(more at the link)

[Iceaxe]

http://artfiles.art.com/5/p/LRG/37/3710/9WIAF00Z/kirsten-easthope-snitches-get-stitches.jpg

[Sombeech]

I guess the self righteousness of ratting people out wasn't so satisfying after all.

[James_B_Wads2000]

No it was the gun's fault.



James

[Sombeech]

No it was the gun's fault.



James

I heard it was alcohol related

[accadacca]

No it was the gun's fault.



James

I heard it was alcohol related
:roflol:

[Iceaxe]

Another artifacts case suicide? Source in artifacts case dead
Probe