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[article provided by Pat Morris. Thanks...]

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/9news01-29-00.htm
Saturday, January 29, 2000

Artifact Dealers Searched

By Morgan Lee
Journal Staff Writer

As part of a yearlong undercover investigation into the trade of
Native American cultural objects and eagle feathers, the FBI was
authorized earlier this month to search a Santa Fe Indian arts gallery.

A federal magistrate judge in Albuquerque granted permission for a
search last week at the Joshua Baer & Co. gallery, 1161/2 E. Palace
Ave.

In pursuit of a long list of Indian-related objects, authorities also
obtained a warrant to look through the home and pickup truck of a
Santa Fe art and memorabilia dealer.

An inventory of what was recovered in the searches was not
available Friday and no charges have been filed.

Gallery owner Joshua Baer declined to comment Friday on details
of the recent search of his gallery.

"There's an investigation going on, and to the best of my knowledge
I've cooperated with various government agencies involved," Baer
said.

The investigation involved special agents from the FBI, National
Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs
and a Norwegian environmental crime agency, according to the
search warrants and affidavits made public this week.

The Norwegian agency's trilingual agent posed as a European
collector, the FBI documents filed in U.S. District Court said.

At the Baer gallery, the documents say, authorities were in search
of eagle feathers wrapped in a calico cloth; an eagle feather
headdress; a pair of war god figures from Zia Pueblo; and a Santo
Domingo Corn Dance fetish bundle wrapped in eagle feathers.

The house of Thomas Cavaliere at 123 W. San Mateo Road and
Cavaliere's 1999 GMC pickup truck also were searched. Tova Indritz
of Albuquerque, Cavaliere's attorney, said her client sells Native
American art, contemporary art and crafts and Western memorabilia
from his home.

"He is not charged with anything," Indritz said.

At Cavaliere's home and truck, authorities sought a Kachina doll,
fetishes and gourd rattles from Jemez Pueblo, objects from Santo
Domingo Pueblo, and "any object with migratory bird or eagle
feathers," the warrant said.

Navajo Cultural Specialist Steven Begay of Window Rock, Ariz.,
said his tribe had been notified of the FBI search and planned to travel
to New Mexico next week to examine seized objects.

Begay and authorities from Jemez Pueblo helped identify objects
that have religious significance, according to the court documents.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of
1990 prohibits the knowing sale, purchase, transportation of Native
American ceremonial or sacred religious objects and human remains.

Feathers from eagles and raptors are unlawful to sell or possess
unless possessed before 1962.

Baer said Friday that "every time I have been approached by
Native Americans regarding repatriation of anything that's in my
gallery, I always repatriated."

Baer's attorney, Peter Schoenburg, said the graves repatriation act
"is extremely difficult for dealers to interpret. It's a moving target of
what's criminal and what's not."

The search warrant for the Baer gallery was taken out after
authorities arranged to purchase from Baer a feather headdress
valued at $75,000 and Zia war gods, according to one affidavit filed in
federal court.

Zia war gods are regarded by Zia Pueblo members as sacred
religious items and have been returned to the pueblo by the state
museum system.

The search warrant also said that Navajo prayer sticks with golden
eagle feathers were shipped to an FBI special agent by Baer in return
for a wire deposit.

A cultural officer at Jemez Pueblo previously had identified kachina
dolls at Joshua Baer & Co. as being items of religious and cultural
significance, according to testimony by a BIA special agent in the
warrant.

Cavaliere offered for sale in March 1999 to undercover federal
agents a Santo Domingo object that he said was purchased from a
medicine man at Santo Domingo and used in a religious ceremony,
according to the FBI documents.

Indritz said, "The fact that you buy something from a medicine man,
if it's pottery or whatever else, does not mean it is a sacred object,"
she said.

The warrant for the Cavaliere search said Jemez Pueblo officials
have identified as cultural patrimony several objects offered to
undercover agents by Cavaliere, including a snake dance fetish, Jemez
war god kachina and gourd rattles.
 

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