Artifact Exhibits

[Kevin]

In Elizabethtown, Ky on 5/24/08 there was an artifact show/exhibit. I went and checked it out. There were maybe 15-17 displays set up and I estimated there to be 200 people there. There were thousands of arrowheads and stone tools and a few bone awls and a few stone pipes and a few pieces of pottery. Some of the stone axes/clubs were selling for 7-800$.

I didn't see anything that looked like human bones. I couldn't believe all of this stuff had simply been found - there had to be some sites and graves pillaged. I would discreetly ask people where they 'found' the stuff and I never got any specific answers though one guy said he found a stone axe head in his garden.

What is the fascination and compulsion with these 'artifacts'? I don't understand this. I remember as a kid finding an arrow head in a plowed field one time and another time by a lake shore I found an arrow head. I came across them. Is this just an extension of a colonial mentality this trading and selling and paying good money for these things? It seems like a conquoring mentality at play here. I asked myself what would these 'traders' do if a bunch of real Indians came in and started asking direct and pointed questions?

[tahcha_sapa]

Hahaha! Good suggestion, Kevin. "Collecting" was classified as a form of neurosis, mild, in the old DSMs, I don't know if that is still the case. It didn't matter what the object was, it was the behavior. As long as the behavior didn't harm oneself or others, it was considered a "normal" neurosis.
I would like to see a law that would require that all such "Native American artifact" objects be registered and TAXED. Inventories of all such objects TAXED, whether in public or private holdings. Fraudulent creation of "artifakes" skirts the Native American Arts and Crafts laws when they are sold in such environments. There needs to be legislation that would require that all such objects be registered AND declared as either made or not made by Native Americans.

[Kevin]

Good point, Tahcha_sapa - there is no tax paid on these transactions - if I go out and earn 750$ ( the price I do remember on one stone axe) I darn sure have to some taxes.
Register the items and pay taxes.

I recall a grave fight one time I was in. An old timer had his grave robbed, the Coroner turned the remains over to an Anthro from a University who wouldn't return the remains to some bona fide Indians who wanted to return him to earth with Ceremony. the land owners were decent people, they said he is part of our property, we want him back where he belongs, a Lawyer volunteered his services, wrote a letter and the old timer was brought back to his grave and a Ceremony was done.  The Anthro tried to use the old tribal affiliation gambit to keep the remains but it didn't work.

The IRS should swoop in on some of these so called exhibits, slap an excise tax on all items and collect on the spot - anyone unable to pay would be charged and their items taken and turned over to the nearest reservation authorities. those who could pay would have all items registered and held accountable the following year for any selling and have to pay a property tax to boot.

[LittleOldMan]

Question all:  Just how does the law read on artifacts?  Here I am specifically speaking about FOUND items not dug up or stolen.  Example an arrow point found in a stream or an ax plowed up while in the process of putting in a crop.  Can these be collected?  Can they be sold?  I am not talking about what is morally correct here just what is legal.  Thanks for your consideration "LittleOldMan"

[frederica]

LOM, it varies with the States. Most all have policies. Plowing is exempt in many places. Also depends on what Nations are present in the area.  There is a lot of loopholes, except for burial, burial items and reburials. Artifacts are a bit more fuzzy in some  areas.  Here is the States http://www.arrowheads.com/burials.htm

[Kevin]

There are two worlds - laws and enforcement of laws. Nothing is going to happen over any object, other than human remains, found on the ground on private property. Nobody "owns" any part of the earth but common reality and property rights trump  spiritual laws on a day-to-day, living  basis. The real issue is how these poachers get their stuff and common sense says they don't go wandering around plowed fields all over the country. Many of them dig and poach off Public lands.I suspect a goodly number of them have ceremonial/grave stuff that they don't dare show in Public - a few maybe even have human bones, that would be my suspicion. They sneak around many of them and are slippery and about impossible to catch.

About a year after that grave fight I mentioned above, some poacher got a guilty conscience and dropped off some bones at night by the Coroner's office in Bowling Green, Ky. He was part Indian, knew the Coroner that had been involved in the first grave fight, so he sent them up to him - he got a grave plot in the city cemetary, a few Indians on hand put togather a ceremony for him and put him/her back to earth. The Anthros were kept out of the loop in this manner, otherwise the old timer's bones would still be sitting in some box in an Antro's closet, like a damn trophy of sorts. Common sense and common decency can  prevail at times but catching the poachers is a whole other matter, a tough nut to crack. Far be it for me to incite insurrection but it would be just and fitting  most symbolic if some Indian scouts could follow some of these poachers and shoot them in the back with an arrow as they dig and pillage.