In Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Pueblo Bonito and other ancient Native American ruins, guides, researchers and tourists ripped mummified bodies out of graves and made off with valuable artifacts.
And they did much of it with the blessings of the Smithsonian, the American Museum of Natural History, and other scientific and cultural institutions.
This desecration, and the efforts of a heroic few to put an end to it, are the subjects of “Sins of the Shovel: Looting, Murder, and the Evolution of American Archaeology.”
Morgan is a field archaeologist who writes frequently about conservation and Indigenous peoples. In the final days of America’s Wild West, regulations for protecting historical sites didn’t exist.
