FBI Seized American Indian Artifacts From Indiana Mans Home

FBI agents seized thousands of American Indian artifacts from a 91-year-old Indiana mans home on Wednesday.

Don Miller had spent the last eight decades collecting the cultural American Indian artifacts, before the FBI seizure. The man’s home is in Waldron, Ind. is about 35 minutes outside of Indianapolis is a rural neighborhood; he has not been arrested or charged.

FBI seizes huge collection of artifacts. (Photo: Kelly Wilkinson, The Indianapolis Star)

Special agent Robert A. Jones, from the Indianapolis field office would not comment as to why the collection artifacts was being seized.

The FBI’s crime art team was deployed to the mans home to carefully collect the massive collection; agents and museum experts estimate that it will take weeks if not months to catalog the whole collection.

Professor of anthropology at University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Larry Zimmerman described the collection as, “Frankly, overwhelming, I have never seen a collection like this in my life except in some of the largest museums.”

The cultural value of this artifact collection is priceless. Along with the American Indian pieces the enormous collection has objects from China, Russia, Peru, Haiti, Australia and New Guinea, Special Agent Jones said.

Even though objects were not stored to museum standards, it was very apparent Miller had made an effort to keep them well maintained over the years.

The FBI wants to determine what each artifact is, where it came from and how Miller obtained it, some of the items might be illegal to possess privately now and the FBI acknowledged that Miller might have obtained some of the items before the passage of U.S. laws or treaties prohibited their sale or purchase.

Shawnee descendant, Dark Rain Thom served as the Indiana Native American Indian Affairs Commission under three governors, said that large collections are often revealed when an elderly person passes away and the family members have to decide what to do with the collection.

Thom predicts it will take the FBI years to determine the origins of all the items in the collection.

FBI Seized American Indian Artifacts From Indiana Mans Home.