National Park After Dark - The Bone Collector: Effigy Mounds National Monument

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

National Parks, as most places do, have rules. It is expected as visitors that we abide by them and it is also expected that rangers not only uphold them themselves, but enforce them. But what happens when they don’t? What happens when those whose objective is to preserve, protect and enhance - turn their back on those very commitments? Today we venture to Effigy Mounds National Monument – a place rich with cultural history, famous for its hundreds of burial mounds and notorious for a scandal that disrupted those who were laid to rest within them.Info on various Park Passes here.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Prose: 15% off your first hair care order by using our linkApostrophe: Save $15 off your first visit with code NPADFeals: Code NPAD for 50% off your first order with free shipping For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax. As AI does the manual work, while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform, so flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless.

Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. There are three words that serve as a creed to those recreating outdoors. Leave no trace. This set of outdoor ethics consists of seven pillars, seven different principles that promote conservation in the outdoors.

Following a large increase in wilderness visitation in the 1950s, leave no trace really took off. Government departments such as the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service all the way down to smaller groups, such as the Boy Scouts of America, and even the Sierra Club, all started advocating and teaching minimum impact techniques. Plan ahead and prepare, travel and camp on durable surfaces, dispose of waste properly, minimize campfire impacts, respect wildlife, be considerate of others, and leave what you find, comprise the unspoken agreement we all

consent to when embarking and recreating outdoors. Well, most of us. that is. We have all stumbled across people either ignoring or breaking these principles, or have at least seen the evidence of it. Litter, approaching wildlife, traces of campfires in fire ban areas, trampled vegetation off-marked trails, some of these violations are clearly more serious than others, but we can all recall a memory of leave no trace infractions. Sometimes these are a result of outdoor enthusiasts ignoring the rules, intentionally breaking them, or being plain unaware of the code of conduct most of us abide by. But there is one group of people that we unequivocally expect to uphold and adhere to these principles. Park Rangers. It's a given.

But what happens when they don't? What happens when those whose objective it is to preserve and protect and enhance? Turn their backs on those very commitments. What happens when the good guys go bad? Welcome to National Park at after dark. Plan ahead and prepare. Leave no trace principle number one. You just like that whole intro brought me back so hard to when I worked in outdoor education with kids because one of the things we would always say to them was plan ahead and prepare.

Leave no trace. Principle number one. Because everyone would be like, what shoes do I wear? What do I do? And to be like, well, we're going down to the water today. So that whole little mini lesson in your intro of leave no trace just brought back. So many memories of just teaching that. And it made me reminisce a little bit.

It's a little nostalgic. Yeah, it is. Welcome back, everyone, to National Park After Dark. We have exciting stuff to talk about today. Not only is the episode really, really interesting. We have amazing news. Like the most amazing news. Like Cassie's bucket list is just chick, chick, chick, check.

Not just my bucket list, all of your bucket list, too, because remember a couple weeks ago we said we had our Alaska trip launch and we said, you know, this sold out so fast, we want to bring more trips to you. Well, we've been working hard behind the scenes and we have actually put together two trips. Two. Two. And we are going to. Sherrill Peru and Patagonia. Can you believe it? I can't, I have goose. I can't believe literally these places. exist are, first of all, they exist. And second of all, they're just places that I always kind of filed on the list of like, that would be great to go to someday. But it never seemed really something that was attainable for me or, you know, just, I just never thought that I would be going. So we are

just so stoked to be able to go all together. Yeah. And we have, we're working with Trova Trip again. We put together full itinerary or we're in the process of putting together a full itinerary. We don't have like the prices or the exact dates as of right now, but we are working on it this week and we're planning to launch it sometime at the end of the week around May 12th or 13th, depending on how long it takes for us to put this all together. But over the next few days, we are going to be announcing more and more details about it. You can go to our Instagram National Park After Dark. We're going to be posting a lot about it on there or subscribe to our newsletter because we're going to

to send out some emails that include the full itineraries, include the pricing, include the dates, everything like that. But we're so, so excited because Patagonia is number two on my bucket list on the list of places behind Africa, specifically more like South Africa area, is number one. But Patagonia is number two on my bucket list. And I'm so, so, so, so excited. And Peru, we're going to Machu Picchu and we're doing like some, ah, it's just, it's just going to be so great.

Yeah. And we're really excited to be able to do it all together. with all of you, like-minded, world travelers, want to be world travelers. So again, we will post more and more details as the days go on. But that's just something we were really happy to bring to everybody. And yeah, I think we can not disclose anything else yet. Because again, it's nothing's finalized. But it will be next year.

All of these trips are next year. Yeah, 2003. And we've put together an itinerary to make it, like you said, Danielle, Like, how do you go to Patagonia? How do you go to Peru? What do you do? You have to do a lot of research. You have to figure it out. If you don't speak Spanish, things can be more difficult. So we've put this together in a way that will make it something where it's not, can I go or what would I do? It's like, here's a trip and we're going to do it together and we're going to explore and have so much fun. So we're so excited. Yeah. I'm also really excited to hear your story. Oh, okay. Yeah. That. It's like, oh, yeah, we have a purpose for this episode. Other than that. So anyways, okay, well, actually before we do get into it, there was one thing that I wanted to mention. So recently we did do the park pass giveaway, which we gave out three park passes to three different people, which was great. Thank you for everyone who participated.

But we also got a couple of emails regarding not the giveaway specifically, but about park passes in general. And there was something that I did not know about and I wanted to make everybody else aware of in case you fall into this. category. So aside from the America, the beautiful pass that, you know, you and I have and we gave away, there is another pass and it's called Every Kid Outdoors. And it is for fourth grade students and their families or educators of fourth graders. And all you have to do is go to every kidd outdoors.gov and fill out the form and they'll send you a free pass. That's so cool. That's amazing. So it's a cool way to get outside for families or people that have young children. I think I think you're 10 in fourth grade. Yeah, you're like between nine and ten, I think.

Yeah, so it's a cool way to get outside and start exploring and a way that you can do it for free. So in case anybody falls into that realm, I would definitely take advantage of it. Okay. I think that's it. Yeah. Let's hear your story because you talked about some park rangers becoming the bad guy, which really piqued. I think everyone's interest. So you got to tell us now.

All right. Well, this story goes far beyond just like leaving a camp center. site dirty or walking off a trail and stomping on some vegetation. We're breaking bigger Leave No Trace Rules today because this story is a story of grave desecration, essentially. In a national park? In a national monument. Wow.

Where? In Iowa. We're going to Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. Wow. We have not gone to Iowa yet. That is for sure. Exactly. I don't know much about Iowa.

I've driven through it, but I really don't know too much about it. Me either. And at least this specific area, it seems really cool. It's literally right on the river that separates Iowa from Wisconsin. My last state I need to visit. Yeah. So we could go here and then just hop across the river and there you go. Okay. I'm convinced. Let's do it. Okay. So we already have enough going on. I don't know if we can. When are we going to handle Wisconsin? You're going to have to check off Wisconsin this year before next year starts because I think it's off the table next year. It's on my list. You're going to have to get that tattooed on your forehead or something.

Okay. As always, I'll list the sources used for the episode in the show notes in the episode description. But there was one article that I got a lot of useful information from. And it's an article written by Jason Daly in a 2017 article that was published on Outside Online. I'll link it, but it goes way more in depth and it's really well written. And I wanted to shout it out. Cool. So anyway, let's go.

Effigy Mound's National Monument. So like I said, it's located in Iowa and it's on the banks of the Mississippi River. Its location is really unique. It's where the prairies of the west meet the forests of the east. So this provides a mixed habitat that holds a great amount of diversity in both flora and fauna. From red oak to maple trees, white-tailed deer, salamanders, eagles, and garter snakes. Can I just say, I always grew up thinking it was gardener snakes, like a gardener, like a gardener snake. I never knew it was garter, right?

Am I even saying that? Is it a garner steaks? No, garter. Like, I've seen them though. Yeah, everywhere. I used to catch them as a kid. Leave no trace. Oh, my God.

There was this one time my dog, so I had Jack Russell Terriers growing up. They were like my family dogs. And my first, first dog, her name was Spot. And she was an absolute terror. Like, she got into a lot of trouble. But there was one time that she got a hold of a garter snake. And this snake was huge. Like, at first I didn't even think it was a garter snake because I'm never.

seen one that big. It was like the size of like a hose around and it was huge and she had it in the middle of her mouth and she was like whipping it around. Oh God, it was so sad to watch. But yeah, Jack Russell's just being Jack Russell's, I guess. Anyway, so there are 11 miles, which is 17 kilometers worth of trails that are within this national monument and they weave throughout the tall grasses of the prairies through different forests, wetlands, and rivers. And while 11 miles doesn't seem too impressive compared to what other parks have to offer. This monument is tiny compared to other park units coming in at less than four square miles, which is nine square kilometers. And they receive an average of 75,000 visitors a year. So while this park doesn't boast what many

classify is like jaw-dropping views and it doesn't draw in the millions and millions of people every year that some other park units do, arguably, it offers something much, much more special. because this park is sacred. As we've learned throughout the episodes, the National Park System protects monuments, historic sites, and parks for a variety of reasons, and this park was established in 1949 to protect and preserve over 200 ancient burial mounds.

Effigy mounds is clearly in the park's name, and they hold great significance to the people, both past and present of this area. So what are effigy mounds? Tell me. All right, here I go. Effigy mounds are raised piles of earth that are built in the shapes of either a symbol, a animal, or a human, or some other type of figure.

Their purpose varies, and they were built by the indigenous woodland culture, sometimes referred to as the mound builders, as far back as 1,600 years ago. And they were used for a lot of different purposes, like I said. Everything from religious ceremonies, they provided connections to the spirit world, They would serve as clan symbols, as a place to celebrate different rites of passages like births or anniversaries, and as a place for burial and different funerary purposes. These mounds were very common, all the way from the Midwest, all the way to the Atlantic seaboard.

But the ones in the upper Midwest were unique, because it's here that the cultures of the area regularly constructed mounds in the shapes of different animals. So everything from mammals, birds, reptiles. This area was known for the effigies to be built in the shape of like bears and eagles and their snakes. They're really cool. I'm like Googling pictures as you're describing it because I've never heard of this monument before. And even the signs have what you're saying, the pictures of animals on them and just the way that the mounds are formated in these photos. It looks really, really interesting. Yeah.

And because they are impressive just when you're walking by them. can't get the full scope unless you see like drone footage views or aerial photos of them. They're so cool. I'm looking at an aerial photo right now too. Oh, yep. And I can see they have like a, there's a bear. Wow. That's really cool.

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So the people who made their home here in and near what is now the park were a hunter-gatherer culture that thrived on the rich natural resources on the bank of the river, and they built these mounds by the thousands. The highest concentration of the mounds in the United States are in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, as well as some in Illinois. In the park, however, there are four classifications of mounds, which are categorized by their appearance. So there's conical, linear, effigy, and compound. Their sizes in shape vary from mound to mound, from 2 to 8 feet high, so 0.6 to 2.5 meters, 6 to 8 feet across, or 1.8 to 2.5 meters, and up to 100 feet high, or 30 meters.

So they're giant. Yeah, 100 feet high is really big. Yeah. And while every type of mound has been documented to be used as a burial mound, the conical and linear ones were used for that purpose most commonly. There have been four different burial methods documented within these mounds as well. The most common style is the bundle burial. This is where human remains were left exposed to the elements until most of the flesh

from the body was gone. The bones were then bundled together with either twine or a string-like substance, and then they were interred into the mounds. There was a cremation method, which was when the ash and charred fragments of bones of a person were collected and placed within the mound. In a flexed burial, the body would be buried in a sitting or in a fetal position, while in an extended burial, the body would be buried just laid flat out. A popular trail within the park actually is called the Firepoint Trail, which is about two miles long or so, but you pass by about 20 mounds, and all four types of this type of burial can have been seen within them. Now I see why you chose this episode. You're like, I get to talk about burial practices, and I love a bear. I'm going to

shout out this book one more time. I think the last time I did was a few episodes ago. I really, really enjoy this author, Caitlin Dowdy, and her book, From Here to Eternity, traveling the world in search of the good death, I think, is what it's called. She has three books. If you look up her name, she'll pop up. But that book was so good. It's all about different funerary practices and burial practices and death practices throughout the world. And yeah, ever since I read that book, I was hooked. So, yeah, you're right. I love this episode. Right up your alley. So unfortunately, the vast majority of mounds, up to 80% of them in the United States, have been lost. And I think we all know kind of why. and that is due to European settlement.

So many of these mounds were located in desirable farming land and were therefore just completely either plowed down or had homes and buildings constructed on top of them. Effigy Mounds National Monument is the largest known concentration of mounds remaining in the entire country. The park preserves the mounds and protects them for future generations, but sadly, that was not always the case, as it took years to get to this place.

Starting with its establishment all the way until the 1970s, so it was established in the 40s. For a couple of decades there, the National Park Service archaeologists actively excavated the mounds and removed the remains of people and different items that they were buried with. Then the question slowly began to arise about excavating the mounds that were used for the ceremonial and burial purposes. Like, is this really the right thing to be doing? because these are people. Finally, in the 1980s, a final shift took place

which transitioned the park from looking at the mounds through a scientific perspective to one that viewed the mounds and the surrounding landscape as looking to them as sacred and more from like a humanistic perspective instead of just a strictly science-based project, essentially. But amidst this final change in perspective in management of the park,

thousands of bones from at least 41 people vanished from Effigy Mounds National Monument, and it took over 20 years and two different scandals to find them. Wait, thousands of bones? Yeah, and that's where our story starts today. Okay, well, you have me very, very interested. Also, can I say all these people who are digging up all of these burial sites, I feel like that's like some really bad energy. Like, do you, I know this, I don't think this is the direction you're,

going with this episode, but do you know if people were like haunted or had like weird things happening? I have no idea. Because I just feel like that is like going into a sacred burial ground and digging things up. I feel like that is like very bad juju. Bad juju. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, you think about it in places like Egypt where tombs are actively excavated. It's just it makes you, this episode really made me kind of shift my perspective. a little bit even, you know, from my own thoughts of like, although I've never really wanted to be an archaeologist or anything, I was, I've, like many people I would assume, are always fascinated when like a mummy is found or like a tomb is found and there's human remains from thousands of years

ago and just like the advancements that that can bring to scientific understanding of a past culture or, you know, a different time period. But these are people and it's just, You will get into it, but it definitely makes you think. So by the time 2011 came around, the monument was not in the good graces of the National Park Service or the 20 different tribes that shared cultural and or genetic links to the park itself. The park essentially went rogue in 1999 under Phyllis Ewig, the superintendent at the time. An internal investigation revealed that from 1999 to 2010, she and her staff carried out at least 78 projects within the park totally illegally.

And this is recent, 2010. Yeah, from 1999 to 2010. So formally, the projects ignored Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. And essentially what that means is they bulldozed sections of hiking trails to make way for ATV trails, built elevated boardwalks with hundreds of post holes, and installed massive steel bridges over a creek, all without conducting proper impact reports on one of the most sacred and archaeologically significant locations in the entire country. So they just started bulldozing stuff and putting stuff in and without going through the proper channels of like, okay, let's see what we're doing and what we're

disrupting potentially. And if this is even okay to do, they just like went rogue. Yeah, to make ATB trails. Mm-hmm. So as a result, over 60 of these mounds were disrupted to some degree. And, And one even had a whole ass shed built over part of it. Like, that's how wildly inappropriate was. A whole ass shed. Well, like, what the hell? What do you mean? Like, this whole monument is here to preserve the mount, and you're just going to put a shed over it?

And people just don't care. Yeah, they were, well, they were evading a lot of different regulations that were in place for a reason. Well, it kind of reminds me, it's a very different way. But in the Florida Everglades episode, it was like, this is a law. And people were like, yeah, okay, like, we don't. Yeah. I'm like, all right. Well, this is a little different, though, because this is the National Park Service. This is the superintendent of this monument doing that. And he's like, yeah, yeah, not just someone ignoring a law.

Like, it's their job and they're there. Right. And, oh, wow, that's so odd. It's so weird. I know. It's like, what the hell? So all of this went on for a number of years, of course, and flying under the radar of the National Park Service headquarters until a former employee gave information to higher ups in 2010. So all of this information came to light basically from a whistleblower. And a year later, Jim Neptsted transferred to effigy mounds, essentially to clean up that scandal and to start making amends with the local tribes for all the damage that was done. He had worked for the National Park Service for over 25 years by this point in different roles in different park units throughout the country. But this was his first superintendent role and what an undertaking it would prove to be.

In 2011, the first year on the job for Neptsted, a representative of one of the tribes affiliated with the park, requested an inventory of the remains that were located within it. Remember when there was a period of time that the park was actively excavated? It was then that thousands of these bones and different bone fragments were taken from the mounds and collected for the park's small museum. So for a time, the parks visitor center actually put them on display alongside different items found alongside the remains, like different things that people were buried with. But the vast majority of them actually wound up in the basement of the museum. Only problem was, the museum, basement or not, didn't have them.

To Nefsted's horror, it was then, in April of 2011, less than four months into his new job, that it was discovered that over 2,000 bones, bone fragments, and human remains. remains belonging to over 40 people had gone missing. And not only were they missing, they had been gone for over 20 years. It's a long time. He comes to this monument, knowing that there's problems, knowing that there's all these infractions that happened on the land, like ATV trails and different things. And he knew going in there that there was problems, but he was not prepared for this problem. Museum collections, similar to evidence in an evidence locker, are housed in secure rooms, or facilities which follow a chain of command and require a lot of different documentation to track

who has access to the room, when the room was access, who took what out, like it's all very strictly written down so that they can be tracked down. But there was no such paperwork to be found for the remains at the park. So not only was this unethical, breaking trust between the park and the local tribes, breaking the rules within the park, it was also breaking the law. Because in the mid-1970s, Iowa was actually the first state to pass the entire country's first Native American grave protection law. In the protection of ancient burials in Iowa, there is a memo that is written down. You can find it online, and it's a planning and development considerations memo. And the state archaeologist Shirley Shermer wrote it within this, quote, Iowa's landscape is marked not only by

scenic beauty, but by traces of thousands of years of human habitation. Much of Iowa's Indian heritage is in the ground itself, in camps and village sites, in mounds and cemeteries. For decades, the remains of Iowa's original inhabitants were removed from their resting places. The land was developed, relic hunters, and curious amateurs explored mounds, and scientists studied burial sites and skeletal remains. Indians were never asked whether they endorsed excavation of graves or displays of human remains. A double standard became especially apparent. Indian burial sites were being dug and destroyed, but non-Indian burials were protected, end quote. So she's basically saying, like, there's a huge double standard here. No one ever asked any of the local communities, indigenous

communities, and native communities what they wanted for their ancestral burial mounds and remains and things like that. So I never knew. I was the first one to kind of take the first step in creating laws to prohibit that. Yeah, me either. And I mean, it's such an interesting point and a valid point to be like, okay, you're protecting all of these other people's remains and burials, but when it comes to native people, you just don't care. So I'm thinking about like driving through my hometown and we have two or three different cemeteries that have people buried there as early as the 1600s and they're all protected. Like you would never see someone just, you know, digging up graves, scientists, archaeologists, or not.

Yeah. And being like, what's in here? You know? Yeah. There was just no such protection for native burial sites and things like that. So it was a clear double standard. And Iowa was really the first ones to step up to the plate in changing that. So violations of this law range from aggravated to serious misdemeanors and was essentially

the driving force behind why excavation was halted within the park. And another big win for Indigenous peoples came in the 1990s when the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, was signed into federal law. So it started in Iowa, but now in the 1990s, it spread to a federal level. This law required an agency or an institution receiving federal funds to catalog all remains in their possession within five years and begin returning them to the tribes,

which, as a complete side note, you know, now, fast forward more than three decades later has not been as effective. They said in 1990, within five years, you need to get these remains all back to the tribes. And that has not happened across the board. So I did want to mention that. But that was the initial intent of this law. The law also changed the way that effigy mounds national monument functioned because it also required federal agencies and museums that possess different native human remains and cultural

items to consult with the descendants and culturally affiliated tribes of the remains that they had. This prompted the park to open consultation and communication with the living descendants of the mound building community and culture that had been broken and lost over the years. So there was a lot on the line here. We are all pretty familiar with the injustices that Native peoples have suffered throughout time, both past and present. And the park was already on really thin ice. And it came to like doing Native people's dirty essentially.

Like they were already not in the good graces of anyone really. And now there's this situation. So Nebsted really needed to find these remains. So he started poking around. He asked the park's only law enforcement officer Bob Palmer if he knew anything about the missing remains. And although Palmer didn't have any information about the missing human remains, he did recall a conversation that he had with the park. former superintendent Thomas Munson.

Munson served in that superintendent role from 1971 to 1994 and lived in park housing until he bought his own home and moved nearby in 1990. So he lived within the park for a really long time. And Palmer remembered a conversation that he had with Munson just the previous summer, which would have been in 2011, in which Munson mentioned that a box of animal bones had gotten mixed up when he moved. And at the time, Palmer didn't really think much of that comment, but now, especially given the situation, it did seem a bit off that he would randomly mention that after 20 years.

Like, he had moved 20 years before this conversation happened. Yeah. So he's saying a box of animal bones got mixed up? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Huh. Yeah, like kind of odd. Yeah, very odd.

So likely exchanging these troubled and, you know, like what the hell looks, Nempstead and Palmer decided that, Palmer should go to Munson's home and investigate. Munson opened the door and welcomed Palmer in without any hesitation and brought him into the garage. After rummaging and shuffling boxes around for some time, Munson said, oh, well, he couldn't find the box of animal bones. But then the very next day, he called Palmer and said, oh, actually, you know, I did find an unmarked moving box and it does have some bones in it so you can come pick it up. So turns out, the box contained a black trash bag filled with human bones, and they were all

numbered. These were clearly the missing remains. And he just gave them to them like it was nothing. Like, oh, yeah, these are just some animal bones. I have hidden in my house in his garage. Yeah. So these were clearly the remains that they were looking for. But there was another problem. These weren't all of them. Actually, after a several week long process of running different inventory checks and cross-referencing, it was determined that the box contained only about one-third of the missing remains. So Nebsted was advised to keep looking for them in various locations throughout the park buildings. Surely, the higher-ups thought, you know, they must be just misplaced. Weeks go by, full of fruitless searches. They searched everywhere

until one day the deaccession report for the remains was found hiding deep in park files. So this type of files are documents that contain the official removal of an item from the holding places like a library or a museum. So it's kind of like you're checking it out. It's a way to keep record of where things are going because again, you have to document everything. So it's like when you go to the library and you check out a book and you get your little card signed, like is that what you mean? Yeah. So like it's another way of keeping track of where things go. Like for example, sometimes museums or even library share and borrow different items or collections. So these reports track the whereabouts of these collections or items. Okay. That makes sense. So this file was great to find, but it only raised

more red flags because the bones hadn't been borrowed. They'd been abandoned. So the term abandoned in this case means that the objects were determined to not be archaeologically significant. But who in the world would deem human remains not archaeologically significant. And just like, rewining a little bit, so this guy Munson gives them a bag of bones and it's like, oh, here's some animal bones I have in my garage. And then they're like, oh, this is just a third of what we need. Did they go back and ask him if he had more? Well, we'll get to that. But just to be clear, they weren't animal bones. Yeah, they were human bones. Right. Mm-hmm. Yep. He just said that they were animal bones. And then they He didn't. Yeah. And they don't think it's odd that he just has human remains and his, it's just weird how it just got browsed over already where they're like, well, where else in the park could this be? Right. And you have to remember, though, that like this isn't just some random person. This was the former superintendent of the park that had served there for decades. Yeah. So he does have some credibility within effigy mounds, you know, staff and that's a good point. So it's not just like a.

what the hell right away. I mean, of course it's... It's like going up to a police officer and badgering them and accusing them of things that you don't know are real. Right. And of course, everyone is capable of committing a crime. It's just not like the first thing that you... You would give them kind of the benefit of the doubt before you jump to conclusions, which I think is what was happening in this case initially. People were trying to find other avenues and other explanations. That makes sense. Yeah. So this report was found. The bones were marked on it as abandoned, and the report was signed by Thomas Munton in July of 1990. There it is. I knew he was suss.

So this was beginning to look a lot more serious than just a simple mix-up. So Neftsted enlisted even more help. He contacted special agent David Barlin Liles, who worked for the Park Services investigative service branch by investigating museum thefts amongst other crimes, all within the National Park Service. So like, what a cool job. He was familiar with the issues that effigy mounds was having in the recent past. He was actually behind several of the different reports about the different building violations that were happening there before Nepstead arrived. So Barlin Liles began his investigation and started with reviewing everyone who worked

within the park from 1980 to the late 2000s. And sure enough, a pattern began to emerge. Through constructing a timeline, he revealed that the remains hadn't just up and vanished, and that no one noticed. But quite the contrary, actually, several people did notice, and several people did try to follow up on their whereabouts, but every single time they were shot down

in one way or another by Thomas Munson. He told everyone who asked a different version of a story. Everything from their whereabouts weren't worth pursuing, or they were likely sent away to the Park Services Archaeological Center, which is located in Lincoln, Nebraska. Or he remembered seeing them in a metal story, Lacher, so if they're not there, then they were probably forgotten and thrown away when the locker was discarded. So it kind of just made it seem like it was the less important than it was.

It's like, oh, you know, it was probably just moved. I saw it, but it wasn't important. Like, kind of really making it seem like it's not a big deal to anyone asking. Well, just kind of stifling any concern that was rising. Oh, it's fine. Like, it just went over here. It wasn't important, so it's just not here anymore. Mm-hmm. And one of the people who he gave an excuse to was a woman named Catherine Miller, who was his first successor as superintendent in 1997 after he retired. And she didn't buy the stories and realized all of these details weren't adding up. And she was actually the one who initiated the investigation that led to the report detailing the lost bones in the first place. But after Phyllis Ewig took over as superintendent, no documentation could be located that showed the park. continued to pursue the issue. So just as a quick timeline, there's Munson, then there's this woman, Catherine, and then there's Phyllis as superintendent, just to give people like a line to follow. So as soon as Phyllis kind of overtook, there was no follow up on this issue that Catherine

really was like starting to pay attention to. Yeah. So with all of this information piling up, the investigator decided to pay Thomas Munson a visit for himself. He sat down with him, and although he was compliant, Munson refused to allow their conversation to be recorded. In their conversation, he told another story. He told Barlin Liles that he had been contacted by someone in the park service to transport the boxes of remains to the Midwest Archaeological Center. And then when he got there, staff from that center helped him unload his car and then they took the boxes away. And then he explained that the box in his garage was probably there as an accidental mix-up from the move. So he's saying that though, yes, he had a box, but it was a complete accident.

I don't know who keeps something on a shelf for 20 years without looking at it in your garage, but whatever. And then he completely said the story of explaining away the other missing remains. The investigator by now knew what to expect because he knew from following up and doing his job that he had already given a lot of different versions of this story to multiple different people. So he arrived to their meeting prepared with a detailed timeline. According to documents, Munson signed that paperwork, the deaccession paperwork, three days after his move. So how could the box have been accidentally mixed up in his move that had already happened? Hmm.

How does he explain this one? Munson couldn't account for that discrepancy and instead said, well, quote, dates on forms don't mean anything. So just another thing of like, that's not a problem. accurate, it doesn't matter, not real information, you just write on it. Like, mistakes happen, dates don't really matter. Yeah, it's like, okay, well, this mistake does matter because where are these remains? You're the only person we've been in contact with that had some of the remains, so where are the rest of them? Barlin Lyle had his questions about Munson, for sure, clearly.

But his interview with his former assistant raised them even further. So this is Munson's former assistant. Yeah. In her interview, she stated that when she worked for months in in 1990, he instructed her to search the entire collection of the museum, find all of the human remains, bring them to his office, and type up a report that marked them as abandoned. So at the time, she didn't feel great about this, but she was unaware that anything illegal was happening. She was a new seasonal employee and she didn't want to step out of line by questioning her boss. So six months after giving that a interview, she gave another one that revealed another significant detail. Not only was she instructed by Munson to do those things, he actually enlisted her to help even further, and she wound up telling the investigator that she physically helped carry two boxes full of bones from the visitor center to Munson's truck. Okay. So now we have like real witness evidence that he was in possession of these. Of multiple boxes. Yeah, not just that one.

Right, because that last piece of information, while it seems, you know, maybe small to her, it was huge for Barlin Lyle's case because now there is, for a fact, two different boxes that were in Munson's possession, at least at one point, which would account for the remaining, you know, missing remains. Having everything that he needed, Barlin Liles drove to Munson's house, where, again, he was greeted and welcomed in. This time his wife was there, Munson's wife was there, and he sat the couple down and presented all of this information that he had, which was an entire park service investigation against him, essentially, including verified information that directly contradicted his various stories, and he kind of just like waited for his response. And his wife was visually taken aback.

She was completely unaware of any sort of investigation, let alone any shady behavior that her husband was conducting. And Munson, meanwhile, was really quiet during their meeting, sat, he had his shoulders down, he kind of looked ashamed, or just maybe ashamed to be in that situation, maybe not ashamed for what he did. But he did admit during their meeting that he made up the story about driving the remains to Nebraska, and he did end up signing a consent to search document. So Munson and his wife led the investigator back out to the garage. And Munson himself didn't go into the garage. He kind of just like hung out in the yard while the wife brought the investigator in and started poking around.

And if you're imagining, like, this cluttered garage that's difficult to access, difficult to find things in, just like a kind of a mess, you would be completely wrong because this garage was neatly organized and very clean. Okay. I was picturing, like, shelves and, like, maybe, like, a lawnmower and some stuff on the ground and just, like, you know, you got, like, your Christmas lights somewhere. I was just picturing not neatly organized. Yeah, like kind of a mess.

Yeah. I was picturing my garage. So my mom's going to kill me for saying this. It's not her fault. But my, it's not the garage. Well, it's kind of the garage and the basement. But it's kind of a, it's a mess. It's like a conglomeration.

It's an organized mess to my stepdad. He knows where things are. But like to anybody else, she'd be like, are we in Narnia? Like, what the hell is all this shit? You know? So that's what I was picturing. Like something could have easily been set down and totally lost forever.

But that was not the case with this garage. Everything was very neat, very organized, and relatively clean. You know, like people were actively in there and making sure that everything was tidy over the years. So after just a couple minutes, Munson's wife opened the flap of a cardboard box, sitting just a couple feet in front of her husband's truck, and inside a black plastic bag full of bones was inside, and lying right on top was a human feet. femur tagged with a catalog marker.

Oh, imagine being the wife. Yeah. Having no idea that this is going on and then you're like, I've had human remains in my garage for how many years? And what have you been doing? Why is this here? Who are you? It would be so many thoughts.

Just going through your head at that point. Of course. So Thomas Munson was charged with embezzling government property human remains in 2015 after four years of being under investigation. The boxes recovered from his crime. garage contained human remains from femurs, mandibles, teeth, and different pieces of skulls, from individuals ranging in age from infants all the way up to adults. The remains were believed to have been removed from the mounds in the 1950s and are anywhere

from 500 to 2,000 years old. And they sat in Munson's garage for 22 years. Can I ask why? That's a great question. And we're going to get to that because there are a couple theories. as to why. I'm just picturing it. They're buried in a sacred burial ground. You go in, you take these remains, and then you put them in a trash bag and put them in your garage. Like, it just doesn't feel like they're even well, if it was something where you're like really

interested in it or have some weird thing with it, they're not even while taking care of. They're just thrown in a plastic bag and thrown into a garage. So it's, right, why? What is? What's the motivation? Yeah. What is the reason? Exactly. The following year in 2016, during court proceedings, he stated he spent 23 years of his life and his career dedicated to educating the public about the wealth of natural and Native American history in the United States. But despite that, he did plead guilty. He received 10 consecutive weekends in prison, one year of home confinement, 100 hours of community service, and a $3,000 fine, and was ordered to pay over $100,000. $108,000 in restitution. Weekends. So it's just like, go to your job or you're retired Monday through Friday and then you're just going to have a little sleep over on the weekends at the local prison.

Like, what the fuck is that? Like, I'm sorry, but what is that? What kind of punishment is that? It's very weird. It is like an adult grounding half-ass situation. I think I'm glad he had to pay. I mean, $100,000 is not pocket. change, but I'm glad he had to pay something that still doesn't seem like enough for sacred

burial grounds, but that's just a, how do you come down to that as the punishment is what I'm curious about? Yeah. If someone knows why you would be ordered to serve your sentence in weekend form, please let us know because, like an actual reason, because I'm a little lost on that. So like you said, it doesn't seem like enough. And some tribal members were really upset and discouraged by the outcome. They had wish he had gone to trial versus just pleading out. They wanted him to go through the motions of, you know, having to answer for what he did. However, justice may not have been served if it was drawn out in a lengthy trial because Munson at the time was already in poor health. He had congestive heart failure issues and he

struggled with different cognitive issues. He was approaching his 80s by this point. So he was quite a bit older. Iowa state archaeologist John Dorsuch echoed the tribe's strife over the situation, saying that what was stolen by Munson was not just a handful of relics. These were actual people. Quote, these are people and there are living peoples who care deeply about these remains, just as modern Americans would care about their ancestors. End quote. He also stressed the fact that not only were the remains stolen, the way in which they were stored for over two decades led to their state of degradation. They were treated disrespectfully, left jumbled together in a cardboard box with clearly no effort to properly and responsibly store them for preservation purposes.

I mean, Munson left them in a garage that reached over 100 degrees in the summer and then plummeted into freezing temperatures in the winter, leaving most of the remains significantly damaged. Most of them crumbled to dust were severely damaged. And this was 22 years' worth of damage. And all of these, like you said before, like there's no effort to even preserve them. Yeah, it's just like, what is the point here? They were in a monument where they were being protected and you took them and put them in a trash bag and threw them in your garage. Right.

Like, I just, I don't understand. Yeah. What is the thing? It's like, what is the reason? Have you seen? Like, what is it? So what's more was Munson's apology or lack thereof saying that the theft wasn't intentional. How do you unintentionally steal thousands of remains?

And Pat Murphy, who was a NAGPRA representative with the Iowa tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, was quoted as saying, the only thing he wrote in that apology was his signature. It was condescending and he didn't admit to anything. But even though there was a lot of disappointment, there were other members of tribal communities that were pleasantly surprised. Lance Foster, who is the tribal historic preservation officer for the Iowa tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, said, quote, we are really pleased and happy with the effigy mound staff, led by Jim Nepstead, David Barlin-Liles, Albert Leboe, and Bob Palmer, for really showing the leadership and making things right here for the tribes and for the ancestors. If it wasn't for these folks, we wouldn't have much faith in the system at all.

As Indian tribes, we are used to hundreds of years of injustice, so it's always a surprise when anything good happens. We've been destroyed, annihilated, our existence dismissed. Even our history was wiped away. People aren't taught about our native history at all. A lot of times we have so many generations of destruction. When something like this happens, we expect it to be that way. When justice does happen, it's a miracle. So he's not like happy with the apology and like Munson itself, but just the situation in which it was handled as far as finding justice, they were surprised by and happy with. I mean, that's such a good point where you're saying a lot of these things,

there is never justice for indigenous peoples. And for this, someone went out of their way to do a four-year investigation to find these remains and figure out what happened and enough to actually charge them with it. And even though he didn't apologize, his sentencing is a little bit strange. I mean, it made headlines, obviously, if you were able to research it. And I'm sure it brought a lot of attention to what was going on and maybe will be a staple in prosecuting more crimes like this in the future. So, I mean, it's a weird sentencing and it's really sucks that he didn't have an apology, but at least he was still alive when they figured it out. Yeah.

Right? Especially because I mean, well, okay, well, here's the thing. My next section of the note says, why in capitals and both. Why? So at this point in the story, we know that Munson stole the remains, but like, why? Yeah. In his written apology, he stated that he knowingly removed these items from the monument and hid them for over 20 years in a mistaken effort to avoid the obligations imposed by Nagpra, meaning that he was trying to avoid the laws. So just to rewind a little bit, Nagpra was passed in 1990. So it was thought that in order to kind of circumvent complying with that law,

that he made these remains disappear first. So during the trial, his testimony revealed that after the law passed, he was afraid that the tribes would take control of the monument and all of the remains and artifacts within it, and that he also feared, if this was to happen, decades' worth of archaeological work, which put together a really important historical record of the area would be destroyed. So essentially, he was like, I'm doing us all a favor by stealing the remains because the native peoples are going to take them back because now it's the law that we need to comply with different tribal communities and give them back what is theirs. So I don't want to do that because they're going to destroy all the hard work that we did is essentially what he was saying. Yeah, that's just the tribal communities get the remains of their ancestors back that were taken from them.

So I've decided to save all of our archaeological work by throwing their remains in trash cans and let them slowly deteriorate in my garage for 20 years. Right. It makes no sense to anybody. It just sounds like an excuse. It sounds like he found something to say that could make his actions seem like they had good intentions behind it. But when you actually break it down, it doesn't make any sense. Exactly. And while there isn't any other documented case like this, there has been talk about other situations like it.

You have to remember back in the day, there were some people within the archaeological community that viewed skeletal remains as purely scientific. And when they were deemed to have no scientific value, they would get rid of them. In the 1990s, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln confirmed that back in the 60s, their anthropology department had native remains within it, which had for some reason or another been deemed to have, quote, no scientific value. And so they were burned in the veterinary school incinerator. That's very odd. I want to say a different time because it was a different time. But I just don't understand how you can be like, well, these human remains mean literally nothing to us.

So let's just burn them. It's really, really difficult to put your mind in a frame of thinking like that. But other people don't buy this reasoning at all. And they think that it was nothing more than a racist act committed against native people. So Pat Murphy, the NAGPRA representative, he said, quote, he thought those funerary objects were more important than people. His attitude was that we are animals. He kept our bones in his garage and told people they were from animals. Like he's saying this is just a blatant.

That's true. He did say that they're from animals. And there's also the thought of, well, maybe he was just being selfish. Like he just wanted them for himself, which is another theory. But any way you slice it, it's wrong. I guess maybe the reason for why isn't so much as important to know that it's just wrong. And no matter what he was doing it, you know, what delusions he had. It would just be good to know what actual motivation behind it.

Like, if you were like telling me he wanted to sell it and make. a profit. That's a motivation. A motivation to do it and would be an explanation and all of these other things. And not that I'm saying it's a good motivation or anything, but it would give a reason as to why this might have happened. And all of these other, I mean, in a racist act, I think that that's definitely potentially, it would be weird that he worked at this place and then did something like that. Or had these racist views and educated people. But it's just, I don't understand how you can take something that's sacred and something you've been teaching people about these protective areas for so long for so long and then you literally desecrate it and destroy the evidence essentially of it you

said remains were crumbling and it's just yeah it's so is he still alive i don't know question i didn't follow up because i don't really care if he's live or not i was just going to say maybe he'll have like a deathbed confession and i don't get that feeling yeah he doesn't seem that way yeah so moving on Albert LeBeau, the third, is the park's cultural program manager and manages the park's collection, compliance with federal preservation laws, and acts as the park's archaeologists, and he oversaw the review of records and location of records within the park after this entire scandal. He said all of the remains and funerary objects would be repatriated to the tribes within five years, which would lead us to the year 2023. And repatriated is given back to the tribes. Yeah.

And he said, quote, the important thing is, is that we never lose sight of what we are dealing with. We can say that their artifacts or their remains, but in the grand scheme of things, these are people who were disinterred and removed. Granted, they may be 2,000 years old, but they're still people. As of 2018, the remains had been safely returned to their respective tribes for repatriation, and a plan was formulated to gather a small group of tribal representatives and park employees

to reinter the remains into a secret spot within the park. So the location of their reinterment will not be disclosed for probably obvious reasons. Yeah. It just blows my mind how recent all of this is when you're saying the years and things. Because I feel like a lot of these stories were like, oh, that was so long ago. Like you said, it's a different time. It's a different time. It's so long ago.

And then you hear the year. And that's where are we? What is happening? Where are we? What's happening? And it's just things that are so obvious. Like to us, we think about it and it's like, why would you ever do that? Why is this a thing?

Why is this a conversation that we need to have to say, don't ruin ancient burial grounds? Like, why is that a conversation that needs to even be said? It should just be like a known knowledge, but here we are. It's just, it's very interesting to hear how recent this story is. Yeah, and to end it on a recent note, today, David Barland Lyle's hopes that the monument is known for its magic, rather than the crime that was committed there. Jim Nebsted, who remains the current superintendent of Effigy Mounds National Monument, is committed to rebuilding the park's reputation within the park service and most importantly

amongst the tribes. He wishes to demonstrate that what occurred within the monument before his time of service will never happen again. And today, if you are good to go to the mounds, there stands a large dirt brown sign with an aerial view recreation of the mounds carved side by side next to the U.S. National Park emblem. And below are the following words, which mirrors Jim's commitment and exemplifies the park's renewed dedication to the preservation and protection of the mound's cultural resources. So it says, We ask that as you walk over this land, to please remember this is sacred ground to those of the mound building culture. The descendants of this culture are not a lost people, but rather living, thriving American Indian cultures

that today reside in what is now called the Midwest. These native descendants continue to honor their ancestors buried here in religious ceremonies on these sacred sites. Please enjoy and respect your time amongst the old ones as their spirit will watch over you while you are here. Welcome to your outdoor museum. Please enjoy everything that is here, but remember that there is no collection of anything within Effigy Mounds National Monument. Everything at this sacred site today was left by those who were here before us. So please leave it as you found it for the enjoyment of those who come after. And that is the story of the scandal at Effigy Mounts National Monument.

Wow. I learned a lot today. I didn't even know of this monument first off and then just everything else. And we haven't done like a native history episode in a long time. It feels good to step back into it. I'm glad you chose this story. And it has added another place onto my list of places I need to go because it just, It sounds very important and it sounds very interesting.

And I'm glad that you chose something that maybe a lot of other listeners who are listening to this have not heard of either. Yeah. And I will say, you know, like the first thing that drew me to it, like we kind of talked about in the beginning was the burial practices. And, you know, just kind of like the vibe of the park of like these mounds were used for, you know, interment of people. And because I'm fascinated by that, I was very interested. but as it usually does with our episodes, we find that the important message is buried beneath what we initially thought. And I really wanted to make sure that we did this one because it is important. And these things can happen anywhere regardless of the people involved too. Like just

because someone's in a position of power doesn't mean that they're always doing the right thing. So I just applaud everyone that tried to step forward and pushed. the issue forward to get it handled because of course it meant everything to, you know, the local tribes of the area. And I just hope that, I mean, I tried to look to see if there was any other documented case. And like I said, there isn't any documented case, but you never know what's happening. Yeah. By right now, who knows what kind of investigations are going on. Yeah. So anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed it and everyone learned a little bit about Iowa that you didn't know before. I had to be honest when it was like explaining the location of the park.

And they're like, it's across the Mississippi from Wisconsin. I'm like, I am so confused. Where did I think Iowa was? Like, I didn't know. I don't know. I was just geographically confused. But yeah, it's a really cool spot. And hopefully someday we get to visit it.

And if someone is in that area, around that area, or has been there, please send us your story about it or your experience there because it does seem like a little special slice. of the National Park Service. And that's it. Yeah, we'll see you all next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you are back. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners,

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