Ironically one of the stories I’m working on is a Native American time travel, so it was interesting to see that two dozen people were arrested recently for illegally excavating and selling stolen artifacts such as bowls, stone pipes, sandals, arrowheads, jars, pendants and necklaces. The primary violations are under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The main agencies in this two-year investigation were Bureau of Land Management and FBI. The defendants’ ages ranged from 27 to 78.
Here is the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
"These people [Native Americans] didn't write books. They left artifacts," said Kevin Jones, Utah's state archaeologist. "So this is like tearing pages out of a family history and throwing them away."