The Theft of Ancient Native American Bones Case Worse Than Excepted.

After decades of investigations and cover-ups, the Effigy Mounds National Monument “debacle” which involved the theft of Native American remains in 1990 by the parks superintendent was found to be more harmful than previously thought according to verified documents by the Associated Press from the internal National Park Service. Some of the issues raised from the report are warnings provided to a series of superintendent that the entire collection of human bones had gone missing under Munson. Even worse, they did little to find the bones and failed to notify affected tribes.

According to Ryan J. Foley by Associated Press, the current superintendent has described the case as one which will hurt the agency for years. However, the case is scheduled to end on Friday in a Federal courtroom when the 76-year old Thomas Munson, now the retired superintendent in the Effigy Mounds National Monument will be sentenced for theft. At the moment, Munson has already apologized with the hope of avoiding a prison sentence. The bones in question belong to more than 40 Native Americans who lived and died between 700 and 2500 years ago. The bones were dug from sacred tribal burial sites between the years of 1950s to 1970s and were then kept in the museum’s collection.