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rwedgee
Ice climber
canyon country,CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 24, 2014 - 08:10am PT
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http://www.latimes.com/local/great-reads/la-me-c1-relic-hunter-20140724-story.html#page=1
Owens Valley relic hunter not one to back down
By Louis Sahagun contact the reporter
This article is related to:
Norman Starks, the anti-hero of Owens Valley, greeted a stranger at his door with something like a defiant haiku..
"Fifty-three Neanderthals," he sputtered.
"Twelve hours."
"I beat 'em twice."
Starks stood on his decrepit porch surrounded by relics of a Native American civilization that once flourished in this valley. His home and yard were strewn with hundreds of prehistoric cutting tools, granite bowls, beads, rock etchings, arrowheads and grinding stones.
They are his trophies, the product of a life's obsession with gathering ancient artifacts from the surrounding lands — and they are the reason 53 federal agents raided his home last month on his 76th birthday.
Agents spent 12 hours rummaging through his century-old house, seizing artifacts they say he illegally dug up on public land.
Lone Pine resident Norman Starks, 76, with a framed collection of arrowheads at his Lone Pine home.
Norman Starks holds a small portion of his arrowhead collection, left behind by federal agents who raided his Lone Pine home.
Norman Starks of Lone Pine holds an arrowhead from his collection, much of which was seized by federal agents.
"They made a real mess of things around here and scattered my prescription medicine bottles from hell to breakfast," Starks grumbled.
"Thing of it is, I can explain everything, but the Neanderthals won't listen to me."
He hasn't been listening to them, either.
The raid marked the third time in a decade that state and federal authorities have tried to end what they allege is his looting of the prehistoric items. The first two attempts failed.
Paiute-Shoshone tribal leaders and federal archaeologists say Starks has destroyed priceless cultural connections, along with scientific data that could help determine human behavior from the distant past.
Many of the items he has collected are sacred, they say, placed by loved ones at the graves of hunter-gatherers for use in the afterlife.
"What he's doing is heartbreaking, disrespectful and illegal," said Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, tribal historic preservation officer for the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation. "It must stop."
Not going to happen, Starks says. Spend a couple of days with him and it's easy to see why. His is a personality unacquainted with the concept of retreat.
He scoffs at the idea that the artifacts are sacred.
"The Indians that made this stuff didn't think it was anything special," he said. "They used it and tossed it aside. It was just used junk to them."
::
Starks is ruggedly handsome if vaguely frail, with close-cropped gray hair, a sunburned face and a new kidney that has him off dialysis for the first time in years. He was once a star of cattle-roping competitions, and he worked as an aqueduct keeper for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power before retiring.
His roots in the valley go back to his grandparents, pioneers who raised several children in what now serves as a storage shed on the property.
“What he's doing is heartbreaking, disrespectful and illegal. It must stop.”- Kathy Jefferson Bancroft, tribal historic preservation officer
t▼
In the living room of the house he inherited from the family, coiled ropes, boxes of ammunition and cowboy hats are stacked among ancient tools used for processing food and chipping stone and wood into arrowheads, darts and spears.
The place once had a woman's touch, but his wife left him for another man, he said, glancing out a dusty window pane.
Many of this town's 2,000 people know Starks — and they know that the Eastern Sierra is dense with ancient Indian artifacts.
Like Starks, some believe the government has no business protecting the bits and pieces of history that occasionally surface in the sand or the foothills. They complain that the government is overreaching on Starks in particular.
"He's a straight shooter," a friend said.
A prison term would kill him, said another.
Yet even his buddies acknowledge that Starks has issues (which is the reason they don't want to be quoted by name).
"Norman has a weird obsession and nasty habit of consciously thumbing his nose at critics," said an Inyo County official.
As one old-timer said over a beer at the Chevron station, "If you're a mouse, you don't keep giving the finger to an eagle and not expect to get eaten."
Starks said he can explain.
Leaning back on a dingy beige couch, he recalled that he started hunting for relics when he was 5. It was the early 1940s, when it was popular recreation in the sparsely populated region.
"On Sundays, families went to church and then went arrowhead hunting," he said.
As the decades passed and Native Americans began objecting to the collection of relics, many locals cut back or stopped altogether.
Not Starks.
"I'd rather do that than sit in a bar or watch video games," he said. "It's a great way to get some exercise and give my dogs a run."
Lifelong Lone Pine, Calif., resident Norman Starks cherishes his collection of relics, gathered in the desert surrounding his Owens Valley community.
The original federal case against Starks, under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, fizzled in 2004 after the statute of limitations ran out.
The state then made a run on charges he was looting artifacts on DWP land, but the case ended with a hung jury in 2011. Too many of his peers had their own cherished collections of relics.
Before that case ended, however, Starks agreed to a court order barring him from ever setting foot on a 700-acre patch of Keeler Dunes, a slice of Bureau of Land Management land rich with relics.
The agreement didn't stop him from collecting. Instead, he insists that he limited himself to artifacts found legally on private property near the restricted area. Now, he said, authorities are trying to frame him.
Some of the evidence seized during the June 26 raid was "planted in my house," he said. Other relics "were stolen by the investigators and archaeologists while they were going through all my stuff."
Their motive? He said they are in a conspiracy with tribal leaders and the DWP to stop a lawsuit he filed against the water agency. The lawsuit, scheduled for trial Sept. 15, accuses the DWP of illegally seizing control of century-old water rights on his property.
"That water is worth millions," Starks said.
DWP workers with binoculars and cellphones routinely alert other conspirators to his whereabouts, he said. If the telephone rings and the caller fails to leave a message, he assumes it's a tribal official.
"If I answer the phone, they call off the dogs because they know I'm home."
To toy with them, he said, he often doesn't answer.
Starks has special scorn for Bancroft, the Paiute-Shoshone preservation officer. He thinks she has a vendetta against him and won't stop "as long as she is alive."
And then there's Gregory J. Haverstock, a federal archaeologist devoted to stopping Starks.
Haverstock provided critical evidence in the state case that failed three years ago. He reported seeing Starks use a golf club in 2009 to dig near a prehistoric burial site in Keeler Dunes.
Starks claimed he was searching for old coins along a railroad line when Haverstock saw him. He said the railroad easement is private property.
An archaeological report said 44 holes were found clustered in the immediate vicinity of the burial site, about 100 feet uphill from the rail line.
"The suspect's footprints were noted at each location as well as dog prints," the report said.
Federal authorities decline to comment on last month's raid. If the case goes to trial, it will be heard by a Fresno jury far removed from Starks' peers in Lone Pine.
“It's just a natural high to find things this old and wonder who did it.”- Norman Starks
Even so, he's brimming with confidence.
"They say they have a picture of me in the place I wasn't supposed to be," Starks said of photos the government reportedly has showing him at the dunes. "But they're wrong."
What was he doing near the dunes?
"I was looking for old coins along a railroad easement, which is private property."
The golf clubs?
"I use them for walking sticks" and fending off rattlesnakes.
Where did he get the pile of massive stone relics on his front porch?
"They were my grandfather's." He said 90% of his collection predates federal laws against taking items from public land.
Holding up a picture frame display of arrowheads, his eyes brightened and his voice ticked up a notch.
"It's just a natural high to find things this old and wonder who did it," he said.
Besides, he added, "arrowheads are as common as goats' asses around here."
Louis.sahagun@latimes.com
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franky
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:21am PT
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disrespectful shitbag.
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dirtbag
climber
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:25am PT
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Yep. Boohoo hoo.^^^^
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GDavis
Social climber
SOL CAL
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:26am PT
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Why did they raid his home? By the article it sounds like he's a regular poster, they could've started a Benghazi thread and he'd be here for 3 months straight arguing with Dr. F and we'd never see an arrowhead go missing again.
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sandstone conglomerate
climber
sharon conglomerate central
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:28am PT
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Fifty-three Neanderthals
Twelve Hours
I beat 'em twice.
Musashi would be proud....
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Rudbud
Gym climber
Grover Beach, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:31am PT
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disrespectful shitbag.
Have some perspective boss, its a free country. I think its cool what he finds, I'm ok with it, keep on keepin on Starks!
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:32am PT
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Wow... I have a cool flint knife, I found, on the ground.... Am I a dirt bag????
Should I give it back?
to who?
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franky
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:38am PT
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Those relics are just trash without their context. You leave them where you find them. They are a non-renewable resource. No one person gets to decide what is right or wrong on public land.
How many people enjoyed finding those same artifacts and left them where they lay before he took them?
He's disrespectful.
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franky
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:39am PT
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Go put it back where you found it.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:40am PT
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I can understand that the artifacts he's collected have value to him. However, he defends his actions by saying it's just junk that was abandoned, which is clearly not the case. It's great to have hobbies, and it's great to collect. But it's even better to have and give respect. This guy doesn't get that. Perhaps if he wasn't so busy trying to be a jackass to everyone, he might be able to express what value these items have to him. He doesn't do that, though, so he appears to be just a looter. Just because he might enjoy the finds doesn't mean he's still not a looter.
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franky
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 08:49am PT
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The stuff on your wall is BORING. Even the best artifacts in a museum aren't as exciting as the worst artifacts in their original context.
Every item you take is potentially depriving someone else of the experience of observing real history and the joy of discovery.
Thus, disrespectful to all of us who treasure public land.
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Artrock23
Mountain climber
Laguna Beach, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 09:08am PT
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Have some perspective boss, its a free country. I think its cool what he finds, I'm ok with it, keep on keepin on Starks!
+1
Never fear, though... the ST do-gooders will solve the world's problems yet!
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jul 24, 2014 - 09:09am PT
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Locker,
That's Mrs. Kravitz (Bewitched), not Peyton Place. :)
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 24, 2014 - 09:20am PT
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It's a free country....with laws. Disagree with a law if you will, but be willing to pay the price if you break it. Time for the dude to "cowboy up."
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jul 24, 2014 - 09:56am PT
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There are hawk feathers all over my yard. If I pick one up, I've committed a felony. Please explain the logic behind that foolish law.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Jul 24, 2014 - 10:14am PT
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There are hawk feathers all over my yard. If I pick one up, I've committed a felony. Please explain the logic behind that foolish law.
This does not apply to just hawks, but to all migratory birds, over 80% of the birds in this country are migratory. It would be nice to be able to freely pick up feathers and picking up feathers in your yard would not negatively affect the species. However, once possession is allowed people, like the crazy old coot in Lone Pine, would be raiding nests to grab feathers, and probably hunting the birds too. A total ban is needed to protect the birds.
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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Jul 24, 2014 - 10:23am PT
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Mr Milktoast writes:
"Sure. There are low life scum who shoot hawks to collect their feathers."
You don't have to shoot them. They natuarally shed enough feathers to keep any non-Indian stocked.
The prohibition on actually shooting hawks makes sense.
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Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
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Jul 24, 2014 - 10:28am PT
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Come on Chaz, do not disappoint us, go ahead and parrot the tired old meme about how your freedom should not be infringed upon by the bad acts of a few.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Jul 24, 2014 - 01:01pm PT
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I used to enjoy picking up artifacts. I have a small collection. But all they do is collect dust on the shelf.
Now I enjoy finding them but I leave them in place. Hopefully the next person will enjoy that moment of discovery. And the next, and the next.
I have one piece that is probably 8000 years or so. Clovis point. My lifetime is just a flicker in it's lifetime. It was given to me by the Mojave desert. As gift for showing my respect. I hope to give it back someday in the spirit of potlatch.
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