Last year, Dr. and Mrs. James Redd were charged with desecrating the remains of a dead human body when they were spotted digging in an Anasazi midden on state-owned land in San Juan County. Native Americans of a thousand years ago buried their dead in these refuse mounds and modern-day pot hunters know that valuable pots and artifacts can also be found nearby.
But 7th District Court Judge Lyle Anderson threw out the charge claiming the law that prohibits the abuse and desecration of a corpse does not apply to prehistoric human bones. The Utah Attorney General's Office appealed the dismissal but Anderson's decision was upheld by the state appellate court.
Well...sort of. The appellate court agreed with Anderson but for a different reason. The court claimed that prosecutors had never proven the bones allegedly dug up by the Redds were deliberately placed at the site. Was it a burial? Or had someone simply died at that spot hundreds of years ago?
On October 8, Grand County Attorney Bill Benge was back in court and attempted to establish to the court's satisfaction that the site desecrated by the Redds was, in fact, an ancient burial ground. Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, director of the Hopi Tribe's Cultural Preservation Office, explained to the court that modern Pueblos still use middens as burial grounds. Just as they did centuries ago.
According to a story in the Salt Lake Tribune by Christopher Smith, the attorney for the Redds argued that the site could not have been a midden because there were no funeral objects found at the digging site. The defendants' attorney Rod Snow said, "they have nothing that shows this was a grave, no grave goods, just a rib bone sticking out of a hole and some bones scattered around."
Prosecutor Benge countered that the reason no grave artifacts were found was only because the Redds had already looted them. An interesting exchange followed between Benge and Judge Anderson:
Said Benge: "Your honor, we don't have anybody here from 800 years ago who was at this funeral...These customs are only now being understood by us. The people and courts of this country should give the same respect to the remains of Native American ancestors as we afford our European ancestors."
But Anderson was not convinced. "If I've got a (burial) site on my private land and I want to dig there and see what's in it, you're saying I'm subject to prosecution? Do you think this is really what the legislature intended when they passed this law?"
"I hope so," replied Benge.
On October 26, Judge Anderson bound Dr. and Mrs. Redd over for trial on a felony count that the couple disinterred a buried dead body without a court order. He also charged the Redds with trespassing on state lands, a misdemeanor. But he threw out another felony count, that they removed, concealed or destroyed a dead body or parts, or failed to report finding a body.
While Anderson let the one felony charge to stand, he was hardly enthusiastic with his own decision. In his opinion, Anderson wrote, "This magistrate does not believe the Legislature intended to prohibit and impose penalties for virtually all unauthorized excavations (of human remains) on state and private lands. In so noting, this magistrate does not intend to condone the practice of 'pot hunting,' only to point out that the Utah Legislature has had several opportunities to expressly forbid such conduct throughout Utah and has consistently declined to do so."
The trial is scheduled to begin on April 12, 1999.
Word was received here last week that Emmett May is proceeding with construction of the Portal chair lift. Survey crews are out there right now and, according to May, he hopes to have the tram up and operating by next March 15.
No editorial comment needed here. Except perhaps a heavy sigh.
I have often called this little burg of ours Schizo County, because we seem to be capable of exhibiting multiple personalities at times. So imagine a county that will not lift a finger to stop rampant growth and development; then imagine that the same county would file a lawsuit against the federal government because it failed to enforce the Endangered Species Act.
That is exactly what we have here. Grand County and a coalition of environmental groups...environmental groups!...have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. USFWS recently supported a plan by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to simply cap, in place, the 10.5 million tons of uranium tailings that lie adjacent to the Colorado River. The suit claims that USFWS crumpled under pressure from the NRC to support the plan. Grand County wants to re-locate the pile to a safer location away from the river, but the NRC has maintained that the cost of such a move is prohibitive.
While the final draft of Fish & Wildlife's biological analysis of the tailings' impacts supports leaving the tailings in place (an un-lined pile on the Colorado flood plain), its two previous drafts expressed alarm that leaving the pile would jeopardize the endangered Colorado squawfish and the razorback sucker.
Former Grand County Councilman Bill Hedden, who now works for the Grand Canyon Trust, told the Associated Press, "We're suing the Fish and Wildlife for being ridiculously naive. Atlas and the NRC beat on them and beat on them after the first two drafts and Atlas convinced them a cap would solve the problem."
But as Cullen Battle observed, the attorney who filed the suit, what might be the most amazing aspect of this process is seeing a rural western county attempting to enforce the Endangered Species Act. Said Battle, "This is a real 'man bites dog' story."
If only our council had teeth all the time.
And now a human interest...no...make that a ringtail interest story. And with a happy ending. A few weeks ago overnight guests at Moab's Hotel Off Center were awakened in the middle of the night by a strange creature climbing the walls (almost) of their room. They flipped on the light and saw a furry little critter darting from one side of the room to the other, in an absolute panic. The startled humans opened the door and the animal scurried into the hall, and down to the hotel office.
He didn't check in. It was a ringtail cat and he stayed for three days at the Hotel Off Center and never paid his bill. According to owner Tim Knouff, the animal, who came to be known as Herb Ringtail (after the Zephyr's own Herb Ringer), apparently got in the basement and could never find his way out. So he made himself at home. True to his nocturnal roots, Herb was nowhere to be seen during the day but faithfully returned to the Knouff's kitchen each evening in search of grub.
The Knouffs considered just letting Herb make himself at home. After all, there is always room for one more hungry mouth at the noontime baloney sandwich table. But ultimately it seemed best for Herb himself if he returned to the wilds. With a live trap supplied by animal control, Herb found himself temporarily imprisoned when the smell of hamburger was more than he could endure. But his confinement was short-lived. Within an hour of his capture, Herb was released into the wilds of the Scott Matheson Preserve and was last seen up a tree with a quizzical look that seemed to say, "What was that all about?"
Now who says this publication never offers "heartwarming" stories?
This publication is about as secular as it gets, but the recent non-stop assault on President Clinton by the Christian Right sent me running to my favorite preacher, former Moab resident Don Falke for an opinion. And he gave a dandy...here it is: