Man charged with stealing ancient remains

Ryan J. Foley | Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa - A long-retired National Park Service official is expected to plead guilty to removing ancient Native American remains from a museum he managed at a sacred tribal burial site in Iowa and keeping them 22 years, his attorney said Thursday.

Former Effigy Mounds National Monument superintendent Thomas Munson was charged Tuesday with embezzlement of government property after a lengthy investigation that tribes and archaeologists have followed closely. He's expected to be arraigned next Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids.

Munson's attorney, Leon Spies, said he expects Munson will eventually plead guilty to the misdemeanor charge, which carries up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine, and that a plea agreement is being finalized.

"We are within a cat's whisker of reaching an accord on this," Spies said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Duax declined to comment, saying more information would be released next week.

Munson, 76, has been under investigation since 2011, when he returned a box of prehistoric bones to a museum on the grounds of the 2,500-acre park in northeast Iowa. The box contained fragments of skeletons, such as teeth, jaws and leg bones, that are believed to be 500 to 2,000 years old and that were discovered there in the 1950s. Investigators later recovered additional boxes of remains from his home that prosecutors say were missing from 1990 to 2012.

Munson has said he took the bones and stored them in his garage in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Spies said Munson's motivation will become clear in court.

Tribes have said they believe Munson was trying to circumvent a law that took effect later in 1990 that required museums to return some remains and burial objects to tribes. Some archaeologists — Munson isn't one — believed the law would harm research.

The revelation outraged the 12 tribes affiliated with the site, who were already angry at monument officials for illegally building boardwalks throughout it. Located in the wooded hills along the Mississippi River, the park features 200 Native American burial and ceremonial mounds, some of which are shaped like animals.

Spies said Munson, who retired in 1994 after 23 years as superintendent, dedicated his career to "educating the public about the wealth of natural and Native American history in the U.S."

"I'm sure he's discouraged and dismayed about this stain on his career," Spies said. "He's eager to have this resolved."

Iowa's state archaeologist, John Doershuk, said the charge filed against Munson was important because it wasn't just ancient relics that were taken, but the remains of more than a dozen actual people.

"These are people and there are living peoples who care deeply about these remains, just as most modern Americans would about their ancestors," he said.

Doershuk said the remains "were treated very disrespectfully" when they were removed. They were jumbled together and then poorly stored and have degraded somewhat, he said. The remains are being held as evidence, but they are expected to be returned to tribes for reburial once the case concludes.

Another former monument employee, Sharon Greener, has said that Munson directed her to pack up the bones in cardboard boxes when she was a part-time ranger in 1990 and that Munson drove off with them. She said she kept an inventory of what was taken and that when she later learned the removal wasn't handled properly, she told future superintendents what had happened.

Munson denied having the bones over the years. But that changed in 2011 after Greener brought the missing remains to the attention of a new superintendent, Jim Nepstad, who launched an inquiry. Soon, Munson returned the first box.

The National Park Service later accused Greener of a "lack of candor" for her role in the removal, eventually firing her in 2013. In a settlement last year, the agency reinstated Greener with back pay and allowed her to retire early.