Posted on 05/13/2013 3:54:26 PM PDT by djf
This is a completely hypothetical question.
Let's imagine there is a guy who lives in Washington state. Let's imagine he was helping out a friend, on his friends private property. Let's imagine he found something man-made and quite old... Let's imagine it looks like a piece of carved antler with intricate designs done what appears to be most likely by Native Americans... Let's imagine that the guy decides it MIGHT NOT be a good idea to run down to the local Tribal headquarters and say "Hey, I think I found something your uncle left around..."
Other than that, what does a guy do? Anybody ever hear of land rights issues and Indian (there, I said it) artifacts? You know, all the Sacred burial ground stuff!
One of grandpa's little treasures is a very very good idea to use as a descriptive, especially noting that it was something he found as a child. Identification can be done relatively easily; quite a number of experts on artifacts exist around the country, I strongly advise creating a new e-mail account that is ONLY used for the purpose of communication about the identification of the object, accompanied by a land address that is entirely unrelated to the find location. Such as if in Eugene, the inquiry is accompanied by a fictitious name and address in Portland.
However, actively digging in the area is something not to mess around with. Do not do this without getting the appropriate permit, and document every find with photograph of location, samples from the soil, and every photograph should include a card with the dig number recorded on it within the shot.
No offense, but I do not recommend using the 'found it while hiking' explanation. Odds are that the item will be seized from you immediately as an artifact found on public lands without a permit. Then the university will sell your find and pocket the money.
About 25 years ago, 2 of my friends went on a treasure hunt.
They researched old documents, looked up maps and figured out where an old War of 1812 ship had been scuttled and burned. They rented scuba gear and spent a whole summer exploring. They found a brass cannon from the ship. After they got it out of the mud at the bottom of a creek, they took it home and spent a month cleaning it up. They were really proud. A month later somebody from New York State showed up and seized it. They haven’t seen it since. No compensation. No cannon. Nothing.
Moral: if you find something, don’t tell anyone.
Sell the property, keep the artifact. If at all possible, sell the property to a Liberal, Feminist, transgender or Gay couple.
Then send the artifact along with the GPS coordinates of where you found it, anonymously of course to the BIA.
Thanks for finding the proper references jaz. Looks like it is probably okay to keep, inquire about, etc. But I imagine a Tribal or Fed lawyer could figure out some way to mess everything up. The “knowingly” part. “Did you ever come across artifacts before? You did? An arrowhead!!?? And yet you decided to dig MORE post holes!!!???”
I think a variation of “shoot, shovel and shut-up” is perhaps the wisest choice. Tell the story when you pass it down to a child/ grandchild once they are older.
Plus - do your OWN research on what the artifact is, the tribes in the area, etc. If it seems to be an unusual find and noteworthy - then perhaps consider approaching a museum. And perhaps contact a lawyer first.
That shouldn’t have happened. There are very specific salvage and flotsom and jetsom laws. Sounds like they gave up to easily.
don’t tie a brick on it, send it to me and I will pay the postage.....
That sort of thing seldom survives the acidic red clay here. Human remains predating European settlement are even rare to the point of being flukish. But, there are arrowheads, spearheads and pottery shards galore.
Just go out to the river bottom or creek bottom when the fields have dried out from the first rain after plowing. The clay washes away on all sides leaving small rocks and indian artifacts sort of raised above the surrounding clay. Easily spotted unless there’s no color contrast. Only pottery shards are close in color, everything else contrasts lighter or darker.
We collected enough in my childhood to fill two of those curio jar lamp bases. Little bird points that look like shark’s teeth, larger arrowheads, a pipe, on and on. The best one of them all was a white quartz spearhead about five inches long.
Keep it, keep your mouth shut. If you try to sell it locally or even within the state you’ll likely attract unwanted attention.
Yep, I’d say that’s probably good advice, it looks like it could be okay to keep but I’d look further into it.
I’ve no experience with it here in WA but plenty on BLM land in Oregon and it’s illegal to keep an arrowhead found on top of the ground, let alone dig for anything.
Yes, thanks for the references.
Hypothetically, I think it was found in Pierce country, which happens to be the area in western Washington that has the most registered artifact sites.
I’m inclined to tell any hypothetical finder to just keep yur dam mouth shut.
Truly sad that this seems to be the best choice!
Are you kidding?!
Spotted owls are everywhere in the western part of Washington state. They can be found in people’s backyards. It doesn’t take an old growth forest to provide them with good rodent hunting opportunities.
not true and most of the time the sites are destroyed and/or bulldozed.
the idea that the govt. will come take your property because you found something on it is just not true. If you wish to find out about the object simply ask your local university or state archaeologist. they may wish to ask a few questions and inquire about looking or conducting research on the site but that is up to the land owner not the govt. I do not live on the east coast but I know here in Texas the land owner is “king” and owns everything found on his/her property. Even if there is a “body”/human remains found on the property the govt. does not simply take the land. In the case of burials the Native Americans here just ask that they not be bothered or may want to move them in a worse case scenario but really what kind of person robs graves? In the case of “stuff” (no graves) it belongs to the land owner and that person is responsible for how they want to act.
This particular issue is about looting on public land. that is why these people are in trouble not because they were legally selling things found on their personal land. This is theft of all of our history.
The comment was sarcastic in that in many cases wherever you find an artifact it is immediately jumped on as “sacred” ground of some type. This is why in many cases sites are bulldozed and/or destroyed. This is not peculiar to the Americas. In places in Europe if a structure is being built, they find archaological artifacts and the government doesn’t know then they try to keep it quiet and complete the construction knowing that the artifacts may at a minimum hold up their project for years. That might have happened on the hill where my house is built except for the fact that the original farm structures were built long before this became a problem. When they built a house across the street they did find some artifacts because as everyone already knew it had been a site for periodic encampments by local tribes. Just because an indian sometime in the distant past left an artifact, crap or otherwise, that some tribe still has some land rights. In my area, various tribes came, went, or were run out by other tribes who were there for a while and then run out by another tribe. Rights my ass.
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