Retired US official charged with stealing ancient remains

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A long-retired National Parks Service official has been charged with stealing ancient Native American remains from a museum collection at a sacred tribal burial site in Iowa and keeping them for more than 20 years.

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.

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.

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.

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