>X-Sender: [log in to unmask]
>X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.3 (32)
>Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 20:15:40 -0700
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: "Brian W. Kenny" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Hopi-Masks Dealer Draws 33 Month Prison Term
>
>[ AzTeC / SWA SASIG ] :
>
>Hopi-masks dealer draws prison term
>
>A man convicted of illegally dealing in Hopi religious masks and other
>sacred Indian artifacts was sentenced Monday to 33 months in federal prison.
>
>http://www.azcentral.com/news/0317sentence.shtml
>
>Hopi-masks dealer draws prison term
>
>By Charles Kelly, The Arizona Republic March 17, 1998
>
>A man convicted of illegally dealing in Hopi religious masks and other
>sacred Indian artifacts was sentenced Monday to 33 months in federal prison.
>
>Rodney Tidwell, 54, of Star Valley, drew the sentence, plus about $12,000
>in fines, from U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll, who cited Tidwell's past
>violations of the law in his artifacts business.
>
>Tidwell told the judge before sentencing that he didn't believe he was
>breaking the law when he bought Hopi masks.
>
>"I did buy masks, but they had never been used in a ceremony," Tidwell
>said. "I'm sorry I did it... I realize now that replicas (of ceremonial
>masks) may be just as important to the Indian people as the real ones."
>
>Carroll's court was packed for the sentencing, with half the seating area
>occupied by Native Americans and an even greater number of Tidwell's
>friends and family members filling the rest of the seating and much of the
>jury box.
>
>Tidwell's wife, Pat, testified that Tidwell was unfairly singled out for
>prosecution. Members of the Hopi tribe besieged Tidwell with offers to sell
>artifacts, she said, and illegal artifacts are in wide circulation.
>
>"When you look at catalogs for Indian art, you will see that many items
>that are illegal are offered for sale by fancy auction houses," she said.
>"Rodney Tidwell has been offered as a sacrificial lamb in this matter."
>
>Tidwell's wife also said he was generous and thoughtful with the Native
>Americans he dealt with, taking them truckloads of fruits and vegetables,
>giving them clothes, blankets, furniture and winter wear, and distributing
>Christmas gifts to the children.
>
>William Hinkley, a Phoenix resident who said he'd first met Tidwell in 1972
>when Hinkley was helping put together a dictionary of Indian artifacts of
>the American Southwest, described Tidwell as "a very honest,
>straightforward man."
>
>Prosecutors Paul Charlton and Diane Humetewa noted, however, that Tidwell
>had been cited as long ago as 1970 for removing Indian artifacts from U.S.
>Forest Service land, and was convicted previously in federal court in New
>Mexico of trafficking in Native American cultural items.
>
>Tidwell has five months to serve on that conviction, and Carroll said once
>that sentence is complete, he would consider whether to release Tidwell on
>bail pending his appeal in his most recent convictions.
>
>Tidwell was convicted Dec. 12 in federal court in Prescott of 20 felony
>counts. He was found guilty of conspiracy, illegal trafficking in Native
>American cultural items, theft of tribal property, and trafficking in
>unlawfully removed archaeological resources.
>
>Evidence showed that Tidwell, starting in 1995, obtained and sold 11 Hopi
>ceremonial masks. The jury also found that Tidwell unlawfully transported
>and sold robes, vestments and other liturgical items owned by an Acoma
>tribal society known as the Altar Society. He represented the robes as
>having belonged to Roman Catholic priests who died in a Pueblo revolt of
>1680.
>
>-----
>Archaeology, Anthropology and History of the American Southwest
>Southwestern Archaeology (SWA)  -- got caliche??
>http://www.swanet.org/
>telnet://aztec2.asu.edu
>
>Brian W. Kenny; P.O. Box 61203 Phoenix AZ 85082-1203; [log in to unmask];
>(602) 227-3154 voice msg pager
>
>
Anita Cohen-Williams
Listowner of HISTARCH, SUB-ARCH, SPANBORD
Co-listowner/Manager of ANTHRO-L
Contributing Editor, Anthropology
http://www.suite101.com
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]