Suspect for FBI Raid on 91-Year-Old Indiana Artifact Collector Identified

Gun Watch ^ | 6 April, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Who accused 91-Year-Old Donald Miller of what has been unclear.  Speculation involving his numerous technological achievements have run rampant as people simply did not believe that the government would send 50-100 FBI agents to check out the collection of artifacts that this former member of the Manhattan project had gathered over the last 80 years.

But the unbelievable has become a bit more plausible  as more information has dribbled out.   Mr. Miller has not been charged with any crime, and maintains his innocence.   He claims that all his materials have been collected legally.

Others have speculated that envious collectors associated with the Obama administration are involved, that a museum coveted his collection, or that he is a Republican, and therefore subject to "special" treatment.   

The truth may lie somewhere in between.  In this article from wthr.com, it is revealed that a leftist Native American group, AIM, has an interest in the case:

An organization representing Native Americans believe human remains are buried among thousands and thousands of artifacts collected by Donald Miller in the U.S. and around the world.

The FBI investigation and massive effort to recover thousands of invaluable artifacts is being watched by the American Indian Movement. Until recently, its local chairman lived only a half-hour away from the Rush County site.

"We are glad something like this has happened," said Albert Runningwolf, American Indian Movement.

 Is the raid "payback" for support among leftist Native Americans?

With  the lack of transparency that has come to be expected from this administration, we may never know for sure. 

The idea that you have to "prove" that you legally own something that is in your possession upends the tatters of the fourth amendment and the presumption of innocence.    It moves us away from the core value of American jurisprudence, that whatever is not forbidden is allowed, and toward the core tyranny of authoritarian regimes where "whatever is not permitted is forbidden".

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[DocJhn]

So when do they raid Ripley’s?

[1010RD]

How did they establish probable cause? Has anyone seen the warrant?

[1010RD]

They’ve got nothing to do all day and this is fun. It’s a boring job and paperwork, paperwork all day long.

[1010RD]

E. Detective in Raleigh

[1010RD]

-ski? I presume those are Polish chairs.

[garandgal]

This is despicable and hits home with me. My ancestors arrived in Iowa in the 1870’s. They took up residence (in a sod home...and later built a wood home) on a nice farm on the banks of a large pond/small lake. That farm is still in my family.

It was wild and unbroken prairie at the time..with Native Americans being the only previous inhabitants. They lived on the other side of the small lake...about 100 yards away. Everyone existed peacefully together for years and traded back and forth...I know this because my Great-Grandmother told me that personally; they were “neighbors” and got along great.

They traded for things from the town store, because the Natives would not go into town (but they really wanted the items sold there...LOL!). She had an incredible collection of stone bowls, arrowheads, ax heads, stone pestles, etc....hundreds of them passed down to her from her parents. Her “door stop” when I was a child was a gigantic stone bowl.

To THINK that some stupid bureaucrat could have come in to her home to remove those items (of course she had no purchase receipts) is horrible. Most of the items that have been acquired by this collector probably came from similar collections...the families just chose to sell them. They were not originally “stolen”...they were likely given or traded.

For the record, another family member absconded with that entire collection...but they don’t live in Indiana.

I can only imagine what my Grandmother (or their own ancestors who were friends of my kin) would think of these pieces of garbage claiming “oppression.”

[cva66snipe]

E. Detective in Raleigh

Fingerprint expert for FBI. Story line was Andy went to be a USPS detective and Barney a FP expert for the FBI.

[cva66snipe]

That is true a lot of stuff was traded around both among Indians with settlers and Indians with Indians. Flint arrowheads was an example. Flint itself was a highly traded and valued commodity as it did not exist in many regions especially southern ones.

[trebb]

"whatever is not permitted is forbidden"

Good for two things. Securing a network and subjugating a People.

[Trteamer]

Ward Churchill got the t-shirt...

[bert]

There is a lot of law against pot hunting. If the collection includes pots or artifacts that were collected illegally by pot hunters that then sold to brokers that resold, the pots/relics are illegal.

Tony Hillerman the great writer describing the cases of Lt Joe Leaphorn and Sgt Jim Chee of the Navaho Tribal police, has the practice as a theme. For an understanding read his book “A Thief of Time” that recounts the dealings between the pot hunters, professional archaeologists and collectors.

In the southwest there are tens of thousands of archaeological sites that were and are targets for the pot hunters.

For me, Hillerman’s books are travel guides. You read the book and then go visit the places in the far flung crime scenes in Arizona and New Mexico. For a Thief In Time, you can visit the National park at Chaco Canyon, Stay in the actual motel described in Bluff Utah, and take Joe Leaphorn’s float trip down the San Juan River to Mexican Hat. You have lunch where there are some of the best and most extensive petroglyphs in America, across the river from the wash where much of the action occurred.

Any way, to understand this old man and why he may plead innocence but is guilty of buying illegal pots third hand read the book

[Yorlik803]

Like the KKK branch that Robert Byrd joined. All they did was sit around play cards and drinking beer.

[Yorlik803]

And don’t tell anyone what you have. Poison Pens abound now is the new Workers Paradise.

[marktwain]

If you have no reasonable way of knowing that what you are doing is a crime, then ignorance of the law *should* be an excuse.

Unless the “pot” is IDed as to time and place of collection, how can any “crime” be shown, unless the police have proof of date of purchase. There are numerous fakes out there. Proving authenticity is not a simple consideration.

I suspect the Hillerman has quite a bit of fact in his novels, but they are still fiction. I would not rely on them for legal advice. A lot of this law is pretty murky, I am told. Virtually all writers of fiction are prone to “stretch” points to make a plot better.

Something that I have noticed is that the major publishing houses are *very* politically correct, and go so far as to insist on plot changes to fit their political agenda. If authors do not toe the line, they do not get published.

[bert]

That is true but read the book and then report.

We are not a court of law. Hillerman did meticulous research and lived in the middle of all the cases. He was a newspaper man.

[Uri’el-2012]

The fantasy is over.

Indiana Jones has been busted by EHolder's FBI

[bgill]

Yeah, this has nothing to do with his artifact collection but his collection of certain tech knowledge along with an antenna or two.

[bgill]

“Spite” doesn’t involve covering the buildings in tarps so no one sees what’s really going on. This has nothing to do with old bones.

[marktwain]

If the FBI did not want to draw attention to what it was doing, it would not have erected the tents!

You do not believe that Miller would have cooperated? That there is some magical property about the physical set-up at his home that he could not tell anyone about or deliver drawings or formulas about? That he is some kind of secret traitor? Otherwise, he would gladly cooperate.

Do you think they are torturing him in his basement to get the secrets out of him?

The “Secret Tech Stuff” theory is a lot harder to swallow than the “Spiteful politically correct power group” possibility. The Spiteful power group reality is more frightening.

With the “Secret Tech Stuff” theory, there is some comfort in believing that we are ruled by really smart masters who are on top of all kinds of secret stuff that we know nothing about.

With the “spiteful politically correct” reality, we have to confront the possibility that the people ruling us are concerned with inconsequential minutia and want to control small details of our lives to gain a little political advantage that helps them stay in power.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Ha! No kidding. Took the kids to the one in Branson last week and they had real shrunken heads from real native South Americans!