>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]