[MSN] Stolen petroglyphs headed home to Nevada.

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Stolen petroglyphs headed home to Nevada  

SCOTT SONNER - The Associated Press     
RENO, Nev. -- U.S. Forest Service officials never believed John Ligon's
claim that he dug up three boulders etched with American Indian petroglyphs
four years ago to put them in his front yard for safekeeping.

But they did share a concern he voiced that someone would steal the
centuries-old rock art on national forest land a few football fields away
from a growing housing development. After they recovered the stolen
property, federal land managers struggled for years with the question of
what to do with the rock etchings of a bighorn sheep, an archer, a lizard
and a wheel.

Now, after initially thinking it was best to place them in a state museum,
the agency -- in consultation with local tribal leaders -- has decided to
return them to the mountainside where they were for perhaps as long as 1,000
years before they were disturbed.

"It belongs out there," said Lynda Shoshone, cultural resources director for
the Washoe Tribe in Nevada and California. She and others said removing the
petroglyphs from the site takes them out of their spiritual context.

"I realize it is a tough decision on our part because we don't want it to be
damaged any more than it has been," Shoshone said. "But I've come to the
conclusion that maybe the more we educate John Q. Public at the sites, the
more they will help us preserve stuff like this."

The theft of the petroglyphs on the northwest edge of suburban Reno garnered
national attention at the time and still reverberates through the community.

"The significant assault on Native American memories and cultural items is
as bad as walking into a Catholic church and taking a cross off the wall,"
said Arlan Melendez, chairman of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.

Archaeologists believe the rock pile where the drawings were located was a
hunting blind where 800 to 1,000 years ago tribesmen lay in wait for deer
and elk migrating from Peavine Peak toward the Truckee River valley below.

The site is visible three miles away from the upper floors of the federal
courthouse in downtown Reno where the accused looters stood trial in 2003.

Under an agreement with local tribes, the Forest Service intends to return
the petroglyphs to that spot this fall, along with fences around the rocks
and interpretive signs.

"It is the right thing to do," said Fred Frampton, a Forest Service
archaeologist for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

Frampton and others in his position didn't always feel that way.

As those legally responsible for protecting the artifacts under the
Archaeological Resources Protection Act, federal land managers have been
wary of returning such items to the field. They've been even more squeamish
about publicizing the sites on maps and downright fearful of marking them
with interpretive signs.

"Putting up a sign at an archaeological site is almost like saying, 'Dig
here for buried treasure,"' Frampton said in an interview during the trial.

That's why the agency originally planned to curate the artifacts until
tribal leaders raised objections.

"We thought, maybe we should look at an alternative plan to stuffing them in
the back storage room of a museum. I think it is a rare instance that you
can restore a site," Frampton said.

Not that he doesn't still have some concerns.

"A sign protects a place from law-abiding people. It doesn't protect the
site from the non-law-abiding people," he said. "On the other hand, if there
is no sign, how would the public know it is illegal to do something to the
site?"

Ligon of Reno and co-defendant Carroll Mizell of Van Nuys Calif., admitted
they used a winch to haul the 300-pound boulders into a pickup. But they
insisted when they were arrested that all they wanted to do was protect the
artifacts. They said they had no idea they were on national forest land, let
alone prohibited from removing the petroglyphs.

In the end, their motivation had nothing to do with their guilt or
innocence. After the federal jury in Reno convicted them of theft of
government property, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the verdict
partly because the Justice Department failed to prove the men knew or should
have known what they were stealing was of archaeological value.

The two men ended up paying civil fines totaling $21,523, money which is
being used to finance the site's restoration.

Ligon could not be reached for comment but his Reno lawyer said Ligon was
pleased the site was being fully restored with new protections.

"We paid a civil penalty for their restoration and as a consequence, we are
in essence paying for their return," Scott Freeman said. "We're also very
glad they are going to put interpretive signs up there. That would help
prevent future misunderstandings."

It has not been determined to what extent the site will be marked, or where
the signs will be placed. Part of the plan calls for cooperation from local
stewards who have received training to help monitor such sites.

The first step in reaching an agreement was to contact each of the three
active tribes in the area -- the Washoes, Lake Pyramid Paiutes and
Reno-Sparks Indian Colony.

"From the Colony's standpoint, we wanted to make sure they were either
returned to the site with some education to the public or that an
appropriate tribe would receive them back," said Michon Eben, cultural
resources manager for the Reno Sparks Indian Colony.

Tribal leaders said disregard for such sites is all too commonplace.

"We've seen places where people shoot those types of rock art and
petroglyphs with rifles for target practice," said Ben Aleck, Pyramid Lake
Paiute tribal cultural director.

Shoshone said the problem is cultural.

"It is really hard to educate a society that has no culture here in the
United States -- our land. They left it in Europe," she said. "But when we
teach fourth graders about things like this, they are going to teach their
parents."

While the agency doesn't keep detailed records, Will Reed, leader of the
Forest Service's regional heritage program based in Ogden, Utah, can't
recall a similar restoration effort on public lands in the West.

"We have had some instances where people have stolen individual panels off
of rock art locations," Reed said, pointing to a case in Utah where a group
of Boy Scouts helped repair damage to defaced rock panels.

"But this situation in Nevada is one that is extraordinary for involving not
just the return of the artifacts, but a restoration of the site. This kind
of stealing a hundred-pound boulder just doesn't happen," said Reed, whose
region covers all of Nevada and Utah as well as parts of Idaho, Colorado and
California.

He said returning the petroglyphs is a "calculated risk."

"But we're hoping part of the benefit of this whole episode comes in public
education and people helping to keep an eye on them," he said.

Frampton said it was a tour of the site with tribal leaders this spring that
convinced him putting the petroglyphs back on the mountain might work
despite the encroaching housing development.

On their way to the site, a Forest Service law officer approached in an
unmarked vehicle and asked what they were up to. Since he'd never been to
the site, they invited him to join them.

Later, the officer's cell phone rang. It was another law officer explaining
that a neighbor watching the site had called about the activity there.

"That made me feel comfortable enough to feel if we put these back with some
signs and interpretation," Frampton said, "that this site might become the
poster child, if you will, for educating the public about protection of our
history and our past and at the same time allow them to enjoy the site."

"So yeah, I consider we still run the risk that when we put signs up and
tell people about it there could be more vandalism and more thefts. But we
now have more eyes and ears out there helping us patrol the land," he said.

"It may be our savior in the end -- the people who are right next door."

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On the Net:

Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/htnf/

Nevada Rock Art Foundation: http://www.nevadarockart.org/

Petroglyph Photos: http://www.petroglyphs.us/

http://www.heraldextra.com/