Desert Reflections
Email this articleCrimes and Compassion
by Jen JacksonBlog Last Updated; 6/12/2009
Sadly, the latest breaking news from southeast Utah isn't anything new.
Two dozen area residents have been charged with the theft and sale of more than 250 Native American artifacts from
the Four Corners area. An informant worked with the BLM and the FBI for two years to bring this lawlessness to light.
The charges in this case include 115 felony counts.
Two suspects are a husband and wife from Blanding who were previously prosecuted for stealing and dealing artifacts.
Several members of the Shumway family are part of the looting network, bringing to mind the infamous Earl Shumway
trials of the ?80s and ?90s.
Of course such acts ? taking ancient artifacts from public lands and selling them ? are not morally correct. Not only
are they an affront to Native cultures who trace their lineages back to those peoples whose graves are being robbed,
but it irreversibly punctures holes in the archaeological record. In effect, these people are stealing from all of
us. And making a profit from it.
They are desecrating graves in the process.
However, issues like this are never black and white. If one takes into account the basic humanness of those
involved, things get more complicated.
Humanity is always a complicating factor.
If we look at this mess in terms of the stories and subjective experience that inform the lives of people like the
Shumways and the Redds (feeling a loss of control over their lives and land, anger at the Feds for not taking their
opinions into account on land management regulations over the years, growing up in a family/culture that feels
entitled to the land and its contents, etc.), the motives for looting aren't all that nefarious. One might feel some
empathy and understanding for some of these folks. So, how should we approach people who blatantly break the law like
this ? and knowingly do so ? but who commit such acts as an expression of the familial and cultural milieu from which
they themselves are born? If we put the greed factor aside ? the selling of the artifacts ? I think some of these
actions stem from a basic fear of change, a sense of the loss of a simpler time, a desire to cling to the familiarity
of the past.
As a relative of the Shumways said, "Some of the men arrested who are in their 70s, that is what they used to do as
kids. It wasn't illegal. It's just something everyone does in Blanding. There are artifacts everywhere."
In seeking such understanding, am I offering too much kindness to criminals?
In seeking such understanding, am I offering too much kindness to criminals?
But, the thing is, they're not simply criminals. They're mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, volunteers and
churchgoers. They're friends and family, people who love and are loved. They grapple with the same heartaches and
hopes that all of us do.
It's the same with the residents of Idaho, Wyoming or New Mexico who illegally shoot reintroduced wolves. I believe in wolf introduction, and having seen wolves and heard their lament on the wind on several occasions, I'm fiercely protective of them in their against-all-odds plight. However, I also understand why these people do it, why they break the law. They're afraid. Fearing wolves is all they know ? fearing their presence, their symbolism, the mythology and the federal regulations that surround them. So how do I wrap my mind and heart around such people? On the one hand, I want to do them harm for the harm they've done. On the other, I want to touch into that soft place of pain that always sits behind fear. I want to know their stories, feel compassion and share kindness. I want to sit down with them over a cup of coffee and see their humanity. Not just their criminality.
It's the same with the residents of Idaho, Wyoming or New Mexico who illegally shoot reintroduced wolves. I believe in wolf introduction, and having seen wolves and heard their lament on the wind on several occasions, I'm fiercely protective of them in their against-all-odds plight. However, I also understand why these people do it, why they break the law. They're afraid. Fearing wolves is all they know ? fearing their presence, their symbolism, the mythology and the federal regulations that surround them. So how do I wrap my mind and heart around such people? On the one hand, I want to do them harm for the harm they've done. On the other, I want to touch into that soft place of pain that always sits behind fear. I want to know their stories, feel compassion and share kindness. I want to sit down with them over a cup of coffee and see their humanity. Not just their criminality.
One of the Blanding residents charged in the southeast Utah looting case is the local physician. He's responded to
tragedies, saved lives, delivered babies. He's also broken the law. And last night, he took his own life.
Which action defines him?
Such are the complexities of the human condition that fascinate me, providing a conundrum I have yet to untangle in my own mind and heart. Are we ever defined by our actions? Or are our actions simply footnotes to the stories that comprise our substance and soul?
Such are the complexities of the human condition that fascinate me, providing a conundrum I have yet to untangle in my own mind and heart. Are we ever defined by our actions? Or are our actions simply footnotes to the stories that comprise our substance and soul?
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
at 9:11:34 AM
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Michael says:
I concur. As an Earth First!-er from way back, I miss the old days of comfortable certainty that my position was always dead right. This piece gets at the uncomfortable truth of public-land conflicts across the West (and, really, ALL conflict, around the world): the black-and-white days are over. In fact, they never were.