Prison Term for Man who Stole from Burial Cave

[L Roebuck]

1-year prison term for man who stole from burial cave
By Gordon Y.K. Pang Advertiser Staff Writer

A man who pleaded guilty to stealing funerary objects from a South Kohala burial cave and selling them at a profit in June 2004 was sentenced in U.S. District Court Wednesday to a maximum of one year in prison.

John Carta, 45, will also need to spend a year under supervised release after his incarceration, according to the sentence by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry M. Kurren. The charge comes under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act designed to protect burial sites.

Full Article

[Brian Roebuck]

It's about time government actually did something about this sort of theft and grave robbing that has gone on for years and years. The "value" of these items on the black market is the driving force behind all this. If they were not seen as valuable they would be left alone and safe. People make modern arrowheads etc as well as the ancients did and sell them as authentic pieces for big bucks. It is a thriving industry and there seems to be no stopping it. I suspect it will never end as long as there are graves to dig up.