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Show And it resulted in the longest sentence ever for such a crime: 5 years. Utah leads the way: More ARPAcrimes are prosecuted in Utah than anywhere else in the nation. American Indians are fed up with thieves rooting around in their ancestors graves, and authorities liken the acts to looting the National Archives. San JSuan Record staff by the Hie remainder of Duet in the Wind is an article by Los Angeles Time reporter Julie Cart about archaeological law enforcement in this area. We print the article in its entirety, in an attempt to show how our area is being portrayed in the national wbJw-No- t only was this article printed in the Lot Angeles Times, but it has been syndicated and has been published in a number of newspapers around the country. , yons here, Rudy Mauldin "You look at what these kicked himself for not thinking people do, and it just makes of it before. you sick, said Assistant UJ3. That morning, he and his Attorney Wayne Dance, who partner, fellow Bureau of Land has won more felony convicManagement special agent tions in ARPA cases than anyBart Fitzgerald, had turned the one. "I view this crime to be case over and over with another highly important to society, investigator. What were they because of the irreplaceable missing? nature ofthe loss. They knew that priceless arDiggers roam rugged areas tifacts had been looted from a of the Southwest in search of remote Indian grave site. They prehistoric baskets, pots and knew that a burial blanket had even bones to sell. Experts been stripped off the remains estimate that more than 80 of an infont and the skull tossed percent ofAmerican Indian arAntiquities detectives battle on a trash heap. They had a chaeological sites, some dating looters of Indian artifacts suspect but no link to the crime. bade 17 centuries, have been As he raced his white Ford Then they remembered the looted. toMoab from south pickup backfill, the pile of dirt left by The bulk of the crimes take ward the red sandstone can- - the digger. place in a north-sout- h . They sped back to the crime corridor stretchscene at Horse Rock Ruin. As ing from Arches National Park sunlight began to retreat from and Moab in the north, south the remote canyon, they found past the dusty Utah towns of their tiny but mighty evidence: Monticello and Blanding and a cigarette butt through to Bluff, on the edge After a crime lab extracted of the Navajo Reservation DNA from the filter tip, near the Arizona border. Mauldin and Fitzgerald got It foils to UJS. Park Service their man perhaps the most and Forest Service employees notorious archaeological thief and BLM agents to find the rein American history. mote crime scenes, cull dues PAULR. The 1995 prosecution of Earl from Band and rock and track MACDONALD D.D.S. K. Shumway was a watershed the thieves. Archaeofor the little-know-n Artifacts abound: Any law401 South Main Resources Protection man logical looking for looters inevBlanding, UT 84511 Act a federal law enacted in itably crosses paths with 1979. His case was the first in Shumway, now 42, who once which DNA evidence led to a 435?678?281 5 bragged to authorities that he conviction for antiquities theft had been robbing graves since . 100-mile-lo- jBsu&GmaKEil THE SAN JUAN RECORD Wednesday, April 11, 2001 Page 7 -- he was 3. His father worked the family's hardscrabble uranium mines, and little Earl often would tag along, poking into caves and burial mounds on public lands. They took what they found and considered it theirs. That sense of entitlement, investigators say, stems from the belief that there is a surfeit of artifacts here. Modern archaeologists often catalog sites but dont immediately excavate them, which can lead the public to wrongly condude that they are not historically important There also is the sheer volume of objects to be found here with little effort. In Utahs ' San Juan County alone, there are an estimated 20,000 known archaeological sites on BLM land. More than 90 percent have been looted. In the Four Corners Area, "if you walk 20 feet and not find something, you are not looking, ELM archaeologist Kathy Huppe said. With the market for Southwest art and artifacts at an all-tihigh, the temptation here is to view ruins less as cost for an archaeologist to move a meter ofdirt is $5,000. The cost of investigating ARPA crimes, which often can take years to solve, also is astronomical. "You get to one of these old caves, where people have been tramping around for thousands of years, and youve got a real dang puzzle on your hands, Mauldin said. "You find more evidence at your average murder scene. Investigators search for identifying marks, even taking casts ofshovel holes to look for notches that may come from the implement of a certain digger. In crime scenes that can stretch cross miles, even the most crafty criminal sometimes leaves a calling card. Earl Shumway was known for drinking Mountain Dew at his sites. We found the cans all over the place and could tie him to scenes because of that, Mauldin explained. Tb scientists studying artifacts, location is everything. The bowls, baskets and sandals that thieves seek hold little interest for archaeolohistoric treasures gists once they have been than as next months rent. moved. Studied in its historiThe methods diggers employ cal context, a weapon or tool to retrieve the fragile artifacts tells a scientist a tale of how are not always subtle. In some it was used, when and why. cases, sites are devastated by Once moved, an ancient bowl bulldozers, backhoes and is simply a vessel. The looting is akin to a scitrenching machines that smash through material that entist who comes to work to may be hundreds of years old find someone has broken into to get to the more valuable, his lab, overturned his experideeply buried, prehistoric lay- ments and stolen his notes. ers. "It could make you crazy if destruction: Repair-- ' you thought about it, Huppe Costly ing the damage is expensive: said. The rule of thumb is that the stien-tific.a- nd I ' ; ' i-- The new Gold MarketPlus IRA. . Whether you plan to travel the world, or just the back nine, the Gold MarketPlus IRA from Zioni Bank is the perfect way to make the most out of your retirement! i?. 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