SALT LAKE CITY — Once the legal dust settles from the nation’s biggest bust of Southwestern artifact looting, federal officials face another daunting task: deciding what to do with the ancient sandals, pipes, pendants and thousands of other items associated with the investigation.
It could take years to sort through the American Indian relics — seven truckloads have been collected this summer — and determine where each should go, said Emily Palus, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s national curator in Washington, D.C.
Most of the items from those found guilty will likely end up in public museums in the Four Corners region or with an American Indian tribe.
“Ultimately the people will benefit. Collections will be curated and made available to the public for research and exhibitions,” Palus said.
Federal officials have done this kind of work before — violations of national archaeological laws aren’t rare — but Palus can’t remember facing the prospect of finding homes for so many objects related to criminal cases.
For now, the items remain boxed in a secure, climate-controlled building in Salt Lake City. Most are wrapped in acid-free paper and surrounded by foam or other protective material, Palus said.
They range from the very fragile, such as ancient sandals woven from reeds, to more robust items like boulders used for processing corn.
Federal agents spent more than two years on the investigation, building criminal cases based largely on recorded deals between an artifacts dealer secretly working for the government and a variety of buyers, sellers and collectors.
So far, 26 people from Utah, Colorado and New Mexico have been indicted for illegally taking or trafficking in artifacts from public or tribal lands. Two have committed suicide, two pleaded guilty this summer and the rest have pleaded not guilty.
The fate of the artifacts will first be determined by the outcome of the legal cases. Those suspects found not guilty will get their items back. Artifacts from those found guilty will begin a long process of disposition.
Work on the first batch might begin soon.
Jeanne Redd and her daughter Jerrica are scheduled to be sentenced in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. They pleaded guilty to several felony charges in July. As part of the plea deal, they relinquished their artifact collections, which required two moving trucks to haul away.
Last month, federal agents used five moving trucks to load thousands of artifacts from the Durango home of antiquities dealer Vern Crites, who surrendered his collection after being named in federal charges earlier this summer.
If sacred or ceremonial objects are returned to the Navajo Nation, officials there will look for a tribal member who can use them in ceremonies, said Alan Downer, manager of the Navajo Nation’s historic preservation department.
