When the feds busted pot hunters in Blanding, Utah, more than a few people thought it was overkill for agents in flak jackets to haul codgers away in shackles.
On the other hand, there’s the magnitude of activity — theft and sale of more than 250 Indian artifacts in two years, many from burial sites. These weren’t people who just pocketed the occasional potsherd. It wasn’t even Uncle Albert’s prized arrowhead collection. We’re talking about organized trafficking on a grand scale.
Months before, a fellow historian emailed about the treasure hunts we tolerate in New Mexico. He wanted to visit an old fort on private land to write about it and got permission from the owner, who complained angrily about “metal detector guys” sneaking onto his property. One of those metal detector guys, my friend learned, has pillaged nearly every military site in southwestern New Mexico, with the help of GPS and a hired hand. He reportedly sells his haul piece by piece, starting around $35.
To an archeologist, these remnants are information when they’re still in the ground. Removing them is like tearing pages from a book. Case in point: Archeologist Karl Laumbach used metal detectors to study the Hembrillo Canyon battle of the great Apache Chief Victorio. The site is undisturbed because it lies on White Sands Missile Range, so Karl and his researchers were able to document a famous battle in detail – a huge contribution to the historical record.
Another historian complains that cemeteries of Hispanic ghost towns on the High Plains are being looted and vandalized.
This all pales compared with a looter in Socorro, who operated for decades. He harvested the entire body of a Civil War-era soldier from a grave at Fort Craig and kept it in his house. Any number of people knew his ghoulish secret; they viewed his “museum quality” artifacts and said nothing.
He didn’t get everything, however. On July 28, 67 bodies will be reinterred, with ceremony and respect, in the Santa Fe cemetery – where they can be protected.
There’s a common theme here – disrespect for the dead, greed and lax enforcement of the laws. (Blanding hasn’t been raided in 23 years.)
A key player in Blanding was the town’s doctor. By all accounts, he was a fine man and a good physician, and his suicide is a loss to his community. And yet, in his 8,000-square-foot home, agents found so many artifacts, the cataloging took more than 10 hours. In 1996, a sheriff’s deputy caught the doctor, his wife and some of their children digging in an Indian burial site; a court battle ended in 2003 when his wife pleaded no contest to felony desecration of a corpse, and the couple paid a $10,000 fine. Last week his wife and daughter pleaded guilty to seven counts.
A pothunter told my husband he made $100,000 a year at his illegal trade. Like drug dealing, artifact trafficking couldn’t exist without demand, and that trail too often ends in Santa Fe with some fancy gallery owners.
Pot hunting has been our dirty little secret in New Mexico for too long. If it was your ancestor whose grave was robbed, you might feel the feds’ tough approach is justified.
© New Mexico News Services 2009