Dolores pair sentenced for looting site

February 21, 2003

By Jim Greenhill
Herald Staff Writer

A Dolores man and Cortez woman are paying for disturbing a San Juan National Forest archaeological site.

Danny Rose reports to federal prison March 5 to serve 90 days; Tammy Woosley is serving a two-year probation. The two were sentenced Feb. 5 in Durango by Federal Magistrate Judge Gudrun Rice, said Ann Bond, spokeswoman for the San Juan Public Lands Center.

Bureau of Land Management Ranger Lanny Wagner caught the couple digging in the sagebrush on the federally protected Reservoir Ruins archaeological site near McPhee Reservoir on Oct. 1, 2000.

Rose and Woosley were digging up the nearly 1,000-year-old bones of an ancestral Puebloan – or Anasazi – who lived on the site sometime between the year 950 and the year 1075.

The Reservoir Ruins site is an elaborate series of mounds and kivas where between 50 and 100 people may once have lived year-round in substantial multistory rock, wood and mud dwellings. Pottery shards, stone fragments and depressions in the ground hint at what life was like in the village.

Last November, Rose and Woosley pleaded guilty to violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. The pair was ordered to pay $2,500 to repair the damage they caused, Bond said.

Federal land managers have said the case is a symptom of a growing problem throughout the Four Corners: the pillaging of archaeological sites to sell artifacts.

Theft from ancient sites and grave desecration offends American Indian tribes. In tribal traditions, to desecrate a grave is to dishonor the person buried there.

The artifacts are sold on the black market. They often end upin antique stores, at dealers, at trading posts, in arts and crafts stores,listed on the Internet or sold by word-of-mouth nationally and internationally.

When bones are found disturbed, land managers consult withthe tribes, who decide whether the bones should be returned to the site orplaced elsewhere after a special ceremony.

Federal law – including the Archaeological ResourceProtection Act and the Native American Graves Repatriation Protection Act –governs what must be done to protect the artifacts and what penalties can bebrought against vandals and looters.

Residents who volunteer with the Forest Service to monitorsensitive sites are most effective for catching looters. The site stewardshipprogram is a collaboration between the Forest Service, the Bureau of LandManagement and the San Juan Mountains Association.

Volunteers visit sites weekly or monthly, depending on a site’sperceived vulnerability.

Federal land managers also try to reduce vandalism andlooting by not sharing information on all archeological sites.

Reach Staff Writer Jim Greenhill at jim@durangoherald.com.