Navajo Celebrate Return of Artifacts Missing Since 1986
Four sacred artifacts being returned to the Navajo Nation are but a few of many treasured items lost over the years to thieves, tribal officials say.
Navajo leaders planned a public prayer ceremony in Window Rock to mark the artifacts’ return after more than a decade spent out of tribal hands.
The centuries-old items have been identified by federal investigators as a mask, a tortoise shell and two coverings that may be drumheads or ceremonial vessel coverings.
Noel Johns, an agent with the Bureau of Land Management, said investigators recovered the artifacts in 1991 after tracking them to dealers in Santa Fe, N.M., and New York. He said they were taken from a cave in northwestern New Mexico in 1986, before it was a crime.
The mask was recovered from a Tucson home. The other objects were found at a Santa Fe gallery.
A New Mexico man pleaded guilty in 1992 to selling the artifacts.
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