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Show Indictments Announced In Archaeological Cases People collect all sorts of things-stamps, coins and rocks, for example; but many people in the West collect things that are sacred and belong to others-in fact, what they collect is illegal. Recently a grand jury in Utah served indictments to four people who allegedly excavated and desecrated dese-crated Native American burial sites. Following the excavations, the suspects gathered Anasazi and Fremont remains to add to their personal archaeology collections. All of the material which was gathered came from lands managed by the BLM. When the indictments were announced, an-nounced, David Jordan, the U.S. Attorney At-torney in Utah, said, "I have promised to step up our enforcement enforce-ment efforts to protect our precious pre-cious archaeological resources. These indictments demonstrate that commitment." BLM Utah Law Enforcement Agents Martin Phillips, Charles Huyck and Bart Fitzgerald are also working to increase public awareness aware-ness of the seriousness and wrong-ness wrong-ness involved with the destruction of archaeological sites. Their involvement in-volvement in the recent indictments indict-ments exemplifies their understanding under-standing of the sensitivity and importance im-portance of Native American history. In April of 1992, a group of Santa Fe College students and their leader made an outdoor recreation trip to San Juan County, Utah. While they were there, Carl Hulan, age 24, allegedly excavated a shallow cave containing many remains re-mains of Anasazi occupation. Hulan Hu-lan removed a partial skull of a small Anasazi child from the burial site. He and Paul Riggins, his group leader, then transported the skull back to Santa Fe. When several students told Hulan Hu-lan that removing the skull was illegal, il-legal, he became scared and then transported the skull back to the site in Grand Gulch. Hulan drove all night, hiked into the site, re-buried re-buried the skull, and then drove back to Santa Fe, all in one afternoon. after-noon. Another student at Sante Fe, who heard of the excavation and was disturbed by the destruction, took pictures of the skull and then called the BLM to report the incident. inci-dent. Following BLM agents' investigation, inves-tigation, Hulan and Riggins were charged with violations of the Archaeological Ar-chaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) and damaging United States property. ARPA was enacted in 1977 to protect all prehistoric resources on public lands. This was a critical step for preservation of resources on BLM lands, since it is believed that there are some 3 to 5 million sites in the West. It is estimated that there are nearly 40,000 sites in San Juan County, Utah, alone. Only two months later, in northern Utah, Wilma and Ricky Brooks allegedly removed remains of a Fremont Indian infant. The child, which was lying on a cradlcboard and wrapped in a hide blanket, was partially mummified. Fremont Indian ruins indicate that they inhabited the Vernal area beginning about 1600 A.D. and vanished van-ished from the archaeological record nearly 750 years ago. The remains that the two suspects took from the burial site are almost 1,250 years old. The Fremont infant in-fant and its cradleboard are very rare resources. This is the first known discovery of its kind in the Uintah Basin and one of maybe twelve in the entire Colorado Plateau. BLM Utah officials also became be-came aware of this case through an informant. The Brookses were arrested March 18, 1993, and are to appear before a U.S. Magistrate on charges of ARPA violations. Law enforcement agents and prosecutors agree that most of the problems with archaeological destruction de-struction come from hobbyists, who simply believe it is their right to gather the ruins left on public lands from previous cultures. "There are people that are going out there and digging this stuff up as a sort of hobby, but this is against the law, and it has to stop," said U.S. Attorney Jordan. Archaeological ruins, especially burial sites, are important to our history and an extremely sacred part of the Native American culture. cul-ture. Wil Numkena, Executive Director Direc-tor of the Division of Indian Affairs Af-fairs said, "American Indians have never surrendered the spirits or burial sites of their deceased. Burial grounds become 'holy ground' and must not be disturbed." Numkena explained that the sites are dedicated unto the Creator and remain sacred forever. The BLM works closely with Native American groups to understand under-stand and respect the sacredness of these sites. The remains from the Hulan-Riggins and Brooks cases will be reinterred. Since the BLM is responsible for such a vast amount of archaeological archaeo-logical sites, not all of them can be patrolled. Protection of these resources re-sources is dependent upon responsible responsi-ble and educated people. If you have any information concerning an archaeological violation, viola-tion, the BLM's hotline is 1-800-722-3998. |