A case of stolen Native artifacts in New Mexico went cold four decades
ago. But now, officials with the Santa Ana Pueblo Tribe are relaunching an
investigation in hopes of finding the objects that are centuries old.
Investigators are hoping to recover war shields, drums, pottery and other
items that were stolen from Tribal members' homes and traditional society
houses in 1984. The Tribe's pottery is particularly valuable because it has
never been sold to people outside the community.
Monica Murrell, director of the Santa Ana Historic Preservation Department
said the effort to acquire the 40-year-old case files began in September of
2024.
“There are clues in the case files, there are some descriptions, there are
measurements, there are, in some cases, drawings.”
Family members play a critical role in identifying stolen artifacts. Without
their confirmation, investigators cannot always verify the item’s authenticity.
e lead proved fruitful when the family of an antiquities dealer in northern
New Mexico combed through his ledgers detailing acquisitions and sales.
Tribal investigators followed one lead at a time until they located the most
recent buyers of the vessel who returned it after learning the story behind
its theft.
New leads for other artifacts are coming to investigators.
Earlier this year, a dough bowl was returned to the Pueblo of Santa Ana
after being stolen from the tribe’s ceremonial village in 1984. The bowl was
reclaimed by authorities and verified by family members in a ceremony.
Investigators have 12 additional leads they are pursuing in which the case
files reveal where the perpetrators sold the stolen items.
New and revised laws have made it easier for investigators to reclaim
pieces of tribal cultural history. Artifacts that are at least a century old are considered antiquities and protected under the Archeological Resources Protection Act. And, in
December of 2022, Congress passed the Safeguard Tribal Objects of
Patrimony Act, which prohibits the export of items sacred to Indigenous
peoples.
Murrell said her final hope is that individuals who purchase historic artifacts
will do their homework in identifying the origins of their purchase.
