From: J.MIKE LAVERDE jmlave@swbell.net El Paso Archaeological Society "Best of the Southwest" Speakers Series Here is the EPAS "Best of the Southwest" Speakers Series for 1999
DATE SPEAKER TITLE OF LECTURE
21-Jan Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Ph.D. "Corn Maidens, Earth Mother, and Spider Woman"
18-Feb Michelle Hegmon, Ph.D. "Abandonment & Reorganization - Mimbres Region of the American
Southwest"
18-Mar Steve Lekson, Ph.D. "Chaco, Aztec, and Paquime: the Political History of the Ancient Southwest"
15-Apr Bill Walker, Ph.D. "Jornada Mogollon Rituals"
20-May Patty Crown, Ph.D. "Becoming a Potter: How Children learned in the prehispanic Southwest"
17-Jun Linda Cordell, Ph.D. "Aftermath of Chaos in the Pueblo Southwest"
15-Jul Tom Middlebrook, MD "The Saga of a Recovering Potoholic"
18-Sep Tom Hester, Ph.D. "New Discoveries In Texas Archaeology"
21-Oct Melinda Leach, Ph.D. "The Desert as Place and Promise"
18-Nov Mike Adler, Ph.D. "Pueblo Landscape Use & Abandonment"
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From: Kevin Jones kjones@history.state.ut.us Grave-Robbing Trial Stuck In Legal Limbo BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE A Blanding physician and his wife are scheduled to
be arraigned today on felony charges they illegally unearthed human remains from an ancient Indian burial site near Bluff. But whether the trial for James and Jeanne Redd will begin in April as now planned is unclear. Attorneys for the Redds want the Utah Supreme Court to consider whether the state should have been allowed to refile felony grave-robbing charges that had previously been dismissed against the Redds. The couple are accused of desecrating an archaeological site on state lands in January 1996 while on a family pot-hunting outing.
An earlier case against the couple was dismissed in 1997, appealed and then refiled after the Utah Court of Appeals upheld dismissal on technical grounds but allowed for new charges to be filed, along with presenting additional evidence on prehistoric Indian burial practices. In October, 7th District Judge Lyle Anderson dismissed one felony count charging the couple with removing a buried human body but bound the couple over for trial on one felony count of disinterring a buried human body. The Utah Supreme Court has already granted a request by the Utah Attorney General to consider whether Anderson erred in not also binding the couple over for trial on the "removing" felony count. State lawyers argue that the Redds did indeed remove at least 17 human bones from their original place of repose and have asked that this be the only appeal question to be considered by the high court. But in a new request filed by the Redds' attorney, Rod Snow, the couple argue that the question of whether the state had "good cause" to refile the charges remains unanswered. Normally, Snow would appeal a magistrate judge's decision first to the trial judge. But since Anderson sits as both a magistrate and trial judge in the Redd case, Snow wants the question to be decided by the Supreme Court. The attorney would have asked the Supreme Court to consider the question earlier, but procedurally could not file an appeal until the Redds were arraigned. Even though the couple were bound over for trial in October, they were not scheduled to be arraigned until today due to "a procedural slip," according to Supreme Court documents. In the Redds' first case, county officials did not book the couple until six months after felony charges were filed, prompting leaders of the Hopi tribe to complain the local justice system was giving them preferential treatment. In his written argument, Snow says Supreme Court consideration of whether there was sufficient good cause to refile charges against the Redds would "insure judicial economy . . . without the costly path sought by the state in limiting this court's jurisdiction to the pursuit of the single myopic issue of statutory construction." Responding to questions by the high court, Assistant Utah Atty. Gen. Joanne Slotnik wrote that because the Redds will be arraigned today, and because the pretrial proceedings in the case still are under way, Snow has an opportunity to challenge the refiling of the charges with Anderson and get a ruling at the district court level. The high court is expected to decide shortly whether the question of refiling the charges will be considered in the current appeal.
From: Kevin Jones kjones@history.state.ut.us Pothunters have formidable foe By Dennis Romboy Deseret News staff writer PROVO Thanks to a band of modern-day raiders, no one will really know how a tribe of Indians dwelt in a cave in the northern LaSal Mountains ome 8,000 years before European explorers set foot in America. "Only rarely do we come across a site like Polar Mesa Cave that can tell us so much about how prehistoric people lived and adapted over such a long period of time. A large chapter of Utah's fascinating history has been destroyed forever. We'll never know what happened there thousands of year ago," said Stan McDonald, archaeologist for the Manti-LaSal National Forest. Archaeologists, though, know what happened there between 1986 and 1991: Vandals excavated and looted the southeastern Utah cave, stealing about 500 artifacts and some burial remains. And thanks to modern-day archaeological sleuth David Griffel, authorities know who made off with chipped stone tools, basketry, plant fiber sandals and leather clothing and pouches the Anasazi or perhaps Fremont Indians left behind. Griffel, a Provo-based U.S. Forest Service special agent covering the Uinta, Manti-LaSal and Fishlake national forests, cracked the largest Archaeological Resources Protection Act caper in the United States. He led a team of local, state and federal investigators whose five-year probe resulted in 18 felony convictions against 10 people. The scope of the case drew nationwide media and legal attention. It also earned Griffel, 45, recognition as the Forest Service's special agent of the year for 1998. "I've been told by experts in the field that these cases are harder to investigate than murders," McDonald said. Griffel, one of only two Forest Service detectives in Utah, said he's not sure about that because he's never handled a murder case. But he'd never taken on an archaeological heist either. "I wouldn't say it was more difficult, but it definitely was a very complex case," he said. "We employed a lot of the same techniques and technology as the Provo Police Department would employ if they were investigating a homicide in downtown Provo." Some beer and soda cans, food containers and a big hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere comprise most of what Griffel had to go on when the U.S. Attorney's Office assigned him the dead-end case of high desert piracy in November 1994. There were no eyewitnesses, only rumors circulating around Moab and Grand County. The looting had stopped by the time Griffel began poking around. The worst damage was done from 1989 to 1991 when vandals excavated 54 cubic yards- about 20 pickup truck loads-of dirt and rocks from cave. Griffel gathered up the garbage and some files from the previous investigator and went to work on the case that consumed nearly all of his time the next five years. He and his team rounded up about 30 people whom they believed might have heard something about the stolen artifacts. At least two of them turned into suspects who decided to cooperate with authorities. Investigators initially pieced together the crime on circumstantial evidence and were able to corroborate it with more tangible clues, said Griffel, a 22-year Forest Service veteran. Through the interviews, investigators learned the pothunters had taken photographs during their illegal digs. Griffel obtained them to identify suspects. The FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C., found latent fingerprints on some of the trash and was able to link them and some DNA evidence to the suspected thieves. "Dave's a heck of an investigator. He pursued the case for five years for us. It was long hours and lots of overtime. Lots of interviews, lots of time on the road," McDonald said. Investigators recovered a large collection of artifacts from the pothunters, who were in it as a hobby rather than for commercial gain. Some items such as arrowheads were pawned. The remainder are on display in a Cedar City museum. Archaeological damage is estimated at $500,000. The Polar Mesa Cave investigation piqued Griffel's interest in American Indian history and the remnants of their lives. It upsets him that treasure seekers "don't give a hoot about the context" of what they're digging up. All they want is artifacts to hang on a wall, he said. "I developed a real fondness for those sites and how important and critical they are," he said. "It has given me a real appreciation for the science of archaeology and its value." Griffel recently obtained indictments against four more pothunters on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property in the St. George area. He's currently working of four other archaeological cases throughout the state.
From: Kevin Jones kjones@history.state.ut.us Ancient bones soon to get protection Measure's intent: Disturb body-go to prison By Jerry Spangler Deseret News staff writer For thousands of years, American Indians living in what would one day become Utah, interred their deceased loved ones in the places where they lived-places like caves, alcoves and even below the floors of their homes. Little wonder their modern descendants are outraged that a Monticello judge ruled that the ancient bones of their ancestors were not protected by state laws against desecration of human remains. Now, lawmakers are one step away from reversing the judge's decision by passing a law that leaves no doubt about the Legislature's intent: If you desecrate a body, even an ancient one, you will go to prison. "The bill clarifies that, but more importantly it responds to the sanctity of all interred dead, not just those with headstones," said state archaeologist Kevin Jones. The bill has already passed the House, it
unanimously passed a Senate committee earlier this week and it now goes to the full Senate for a final vote later this week. HB192 has the enthusiastic endorsement of American Indian groups in Utah and throughout the Southwest, many of whom trace their ancestry to prehistoric peoples who once resided here. These ancestral remains and items placed with the burials are the frequent target of looters seeking PreColumbian artifacts, many of which are sold on the lucrative antiquities market. "People have avoided prosecution by claiming ancient remains did not constitute burials. For American Indian people, this is a very, very sensitive issue," said Forrest Cuch, director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs. The legislation is in direct response to a court case out of San Juan County where James Redd, a prominent local physician, and his wife, Jeanne, were charged with desecrating ancient Indian remains. The charges came after hikers observed them digging in an Anasazi ruin just north of Bluff. Redd told investigators he thought the site was on private land and that he had the landowner's permission to dig there. It turns out the site was on state School Trust lands. Local officials were reluctant to file charges, and after nine months of inaction Hopi tribal leaders mounted a highly publicized protest (the Anasazi are ancestors to the Hopi and other modern Pueblo peoples). The Redds were eventually charged with desecration of a human body, a third-degree felony, and trespassing of Trust lands, a misdemeanor. But in March 1997, 7th District Judge Lyle Anderson dismissed the desecration charge, saying it was intended to "keep people from digging around in graveyards." He said there comes a point "when we can't hold people guilty of a third-degree felony because they don't avoid all of these human remains," which he said are "scattered all over this part of the country." The Attorney General's Office appealed the ruling as racist, saying the judge's ruling afforded legal protections to pioneer graveyards but not to Indian graveyards. American Indian tribes across the nation echoed the charges of racism in what became a Civil Rights black eye for the state. The appeals court subsequently ruled the state had not proven the disturbed site was a graveyard, only that "the bones were unearthed from a midden area at an ancient dwelling site." Three charges against the Redds were subsequently filed, but the judge again dismissed a charge of "concealing, removing or failing to report a dead body, or destroying a body or any part of it." However, the Redds face an April 12 trial on one count of trespassing on state lands and one count of disinterring a dead body without a court order-both misdemeanors. Rep. Eli Anderson, D-Tremonton and the bill's sponsor, says that in addition to clarifying the Legislature's intent, the legislation also strengthens Utah laws protecting archaeological resources on state lands. The bill makes any vandalism of an archaeological site a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, if the vandals do more than $500 damage. Currently, vandalism of archaeological sites is a Class B misdemeanor. The new state law brings Utah's archaeological protection law more into line with federal law. The new law will apply only to those who intentionally disturb human remains and archaeological sites. Accidental disturbances, such as a farmer plowing up remains in his field or construction workers unearthing bones, would not be a violation of the law.