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To Protect From Looters - They Looted? Rock Art Nevada

Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 10 September 2007  Page Views: 4546

Rock Art

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Country: United States State: Nevada Type: Rock Art

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The original News -- It would be hard to imagine a simpler theft case than the one against John Ligon. Three boulders bearing centuries-old petroglyphs of an archer and bighorn sheep were part of his front yard landscaping. So when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out convictions against the Reno man and a co-defendant, it left prosecutors and archaeologists questioning whether they have any legal weapon to fight the plunder of unknown thousands of ancient sites.

In asking the court for a rehearing, federal prosecutor Robert Don Gifford said that its March ruling "effectively provides a license to steal" petroglyphs and other artifacts.

Alanah Woody, an anthropologist at the Nevada State Museum and head of the Nevada Rock Art Foundation, said the ruling nullifies widely publicized convictions that had been viewed as a major victory for efforts to protect archaeological resources.

"I don't think the citizens of Reno are happy about the decision," Woody said. "They don't want this to happen anymore."

A three-judge panel of the court did not dispute that Ligon and Carroll Mizell stole the boulders from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in August 2003.

The problem, the ruling said, was that the government failed to prove two critical points: It didn't show that the artifacts were worth $1,000, or that the defendants knew or should have known they were stealing something of archaeological value.

That's an impossible standard, said Sherry Hutt, a former Superior Court judge from Arizona who manages a Park Service program under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

``Essentially the government must prove the defendant knew this was an archaeological resource and knew the actual scientific benefit - which essentially says only archaeological scientists could be convicted in such a case,'' she said.

Gifford wrote that the decision ``effectively leaves the government without the means to stop the needless, careless, and intentional destruction of archaeological sites and organized and intentional theft of the valuable remains of previous civilizations.''

It is hard to know how many artifacts have been looted from ancient sites, but the number must be large: The National Park Service alone recorded 11,000 violations in just one year, 2002. Only a tiny fraction of lootings are prosecuted.

The two men in the Nevada case admitted they used a winch to remove the boulders, but insist they didn't know they were breaking the law, partly because no signs marked the site.

Source: The Guardian. See Comment for the Results --

Note: The Rest of the Story - Petroglyph Thief Pays Civil Fine - Rock Art to be Returned to Nevada Site.
Contributor Bio for bat400: Located in the Lower Ohio River Valley, United States.

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"To Protect From Looters - They Looted?" | Login/Create an Account | 1 comment
  
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Re: To Protect From Looters - They Looted? by bat400 on Monday, 10 September 2007
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Stolen petroglyphs are returning to Nevada site

U.S. Forest Service officials never believed John Ligon's claim that he dug up three boulders etched with American Indian petroglyphs four years ago to put them in his front yard for safekeeping. But they did share a concern he voiced that someone would steal the centuries-old rock art on national forest land a few football fields away from a growing housing development. After they recovered the stolen property, federal land managers struggled with the question of what to do with the rock etchings of a bighorn sheep, an archer, a lizard and a wheel.

Now, after initially thinking it was best to place them in a state museum, the agency - in consultation with local tribal leaders - has decided to return them to the mountainside.

"It belongs out there," said Lynda Shoshone, cultural resources director for the Washoe Tribe in Nevada and California. She and others said removing the petroglyphs from the site takes them out of their spiritual context. "...it is a tough decision on our part ...," Shoshone said. "But I've come to the conclusion that maybe the more we educate John Q. Public at the sites, the more they will help us preserve stuff like this."

Under an agreement with local tribes, the Forest Service intends to return the petroglyphs to that spot this fall, along with fences around the rocks and interpretive signs.

As those legally responsible for protecting the artifacts under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, federal land managers have been wary of returning such items to the field. They've been even more squeamish about publicizing the sites on maps and downright fearful of marking them with interpretive signs.

"Putting up a sign at an archaeological site is almost like saying, `Dig here for buried treasure,"' Frampton [Forest Service Archaeologist] said in an interview during the trial.
"A sign protects a place from law-abiding people. It doesn't protect the site from the non-law-abiding people," he said. "On the other hand, if there is no sign, how would the public know it is illegal to do something to the site?"

Ligon of Reno and co-defendant Carroll Mizell of Van Nuys Calif. insisted that all they wanted to do was protect the artifacts. They said they had no idea they were on national forest land, let alone prohibited from removing the petroglyphs.

In the end, their motivation had nothing to do with their guilt or innocence. After the federal jury in Reno convicted them of theft of government property, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the verdict partly because the Justice Department failed to prove the men knew or should have known what they were stealing was of archaeological value.

The two men ended up paying civil fines totaling $21,523, money which is being used to finance the site's restoration.

Frampton said it was a tour of the site with tribal leaders that convinced him putting the petroglyphs back on the mountain might work. On their way to the site, a Forest Service law officer approached in an unmarked vehicle and asked what they were up to. ... they invited him to join them.

Later, the officer's cell phone rang. It was another law officer explaining that a neighbor watching the site had called about the activity there.
"It may be our savior in the end - the people who are right next door."

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