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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- The nation's largest and longest-running Indian artifact show opened last year under a cloud of fear and uncertainty as a federal investigation into the sale of Native American artifacts intensified throughout the Four Corners region.
Since then, suicide has claimed the government's informant and two defendants, the prehistoric Indian art market has bottomed out, some collectors' lives have been turned upside down and several federal indictments have resulted only in probation for some of those accused of plundering artifacts from federal lands.
Now, artifact dealers and collectors attending the 32nd annual Whitehawk Antique Show in Santa Fe are sharing their concerns over how the government handled the case and the way authorities are interpreting federal laws designed to protect the nation's archaeological sites and cultural heritage.
We have suffered a stigma for so many years. I think it's time for people to stand up for their rights to collect and enjoy things that are old.
–Dace Hyatt
"We have suffered a stigma for so many years. I think it's time for people to stand up for their rights to collect and enjoy things that are old," Dace Hyatt, a restoration expert from Show Low, Ariz., told The Associated Press.
Hyatt and other members of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association organized a special panel discussion before the start of the show Monday to talk about the federal raids, informant Ted Gardiner and the laws that govern everything from arrowheads to centuries-old pots.
Federal authorities rounded up more than two dozen defendants last summer in Utah, New Mexico and Colorado following a sting operation that was fueled by Gardiner's undercover work. So far, eight defendants have reached plea agreements that resulted in leniency and no prison time.
In the latest case, a Utah man who once bragged about taking Indian artifacts from federal lands received three years of probation. Charges are pending against 16 more defendants and an investigation remains open in Arizona and New Mexico.
Dealers and collectors acknowledge that the operation helped eliminate what they called a "fringe criminal element" in the artifact market, but they vehemently denied claims by authorities that an underground black market exists.
"That is a total myth and it needs to be debunked right now," said Jim Owens, a retired attorney and an avid collector.
Owens and others also said that some of the raids went too far and the rights of honest collectors were trampled.
Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Utah, said Tuesday that prosecutors are confident in the way the cases have been charged and noted that a federal judge found sufficient reason to sign off on the plea agreements that have been reached so far.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
