BOONEVILLE – Looting or vandalizing a Native American burial ground can lead to a felony conviction in Arkansas, as two men found out recently. Seth Terry, 25, and Lane Oliver, 22, both were found guilty earlier this year in Logan County Circuit Court of vandalizing an archeological site, which is a Class D felony. They were both sentenced to 36 months of jail time and were each ordered to pay restitution of $2,000.
In March 2017, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer Jason Collier, who has suspected increased vandalism of the site over the past few years, came upon the men at a site along the bank of Sugar Creek, which flows into the Petit Jean River a little upstream from Blue Mountain Lake, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owned lake. The AGFC manages the wildlife management area there, Blue Mountain WMA. The archeological site is known as “Wild Violet” and contains documented Native American burial sites along with artifacts from day-to-day life of the people who lived there, Collier said. It’s estimated that Native Americans were there as recent as 300 years ago and probably lived there as far back as 2,500 years ago, Collier said. There have been at least nine authorized excavations of the site, he added, and the site has been documented by the Arkansas Archeological Survey in coordination with federal, state and tribal approval.
Terry and Oliver decided to do their own excavating, telling Collier later that they were aware it is illegal to remove any objects from an archeological site, but claiming they were only looking for arrowheads.
Collier, in arresting the suspects, found several pieces of flint, flakes and a partial arrowhead along with pieces of pottery in Terry’s coat pocket. Oliver had no artifacts on
