2/26/2019 Human bones found: While seizing thousands of artifacts from an Indiana home, FBI makes "staggering" discovery

iscovery of human remains - C…

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When the FBI showed up at Don Miller's home in rural Indiana in 2014 to seize
part of his vast personal collection of artifacts, it was a shock for people who knew
him.

"He was very beloved. He was very charismatic," former local reporter Liz Dykes
said. Dykes interviewed the 90-year-old former engineer about his time in World
War II, his missionary work in Haiti, and most of all, his huge collection of
artifacts from around the world.

"The entire house is a museum. There are things everywhere," Dykes recounted.
"It was just mind-blowing."

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2/26/2019 Human bones found: While seizing thousands of artifacts from an Indiana home, FBI makes "staggering" discovery of human remains - C…

Miller willingly showed his collection to reporters, residents, and even local Boy
Scout troops, so when the FBI came calling, she said, "I wanted to know what they
Newsroom
A Twitter list by @CBSThisMorning
were looking for... There had to have been something."
The @CBSThisMorning Newsroom on
CBSNews.com
There was: something the FBI hasn't talked about—until now.
CBS Evening News
"When I first went into his house and saw the size of the collection, it was unlike @CBSEveningNews
anything we'd ever seen," Tim Carpenter, who heads the FBI's art crime unit, told
TONIGHT: Ahead of Pres. Trump's summit with
CBS News correspondent Anna Werner. "Not only me, but I don't think anybody Kim Jong Un, CBS News revisits the moments
on the art crime team." captured in real time from the Vietnam War; for
the first time in American history, news from the
FBI photos – never before shown publicly – give a glimpse of the collection: some front lines was sent straight into living rooms
42,000 items, including pre-Colombian pottery, an Italian mosaic, and items from across the country -- watch more 6:30 p.m. ET

China, some that Miller labeled "Chinese Jewelry" from 500 BC.

"Roughly half of the collection was Native American, and the other half of the
collection was from every corner of the globe," Carpenter said.

But the problem? Carpenter said a lot of it had been illegally obtained. Miller
admitted he'd gone on digging expeditions in foreign countries and around the
United States for decades in violation of antiquities laws.

"Did he understand that he had obtained some things illegally?" Werner asked.

"He did," Carpenter said, adding that Miller admitted to it. 2m

Miller eventually agreed to let the FBI seize some 5,000 artifacts so they could be CBS This Morning
returned to their countries of origin. But Carpenter said all the FBI's careful
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planning couldn't prepare them for another, more disturbing discovery.

"About 2,000 human bones," Carpenter said. "To the best of our knowledge right
now, those 2,000 bones represent about 500 human beings."

Nearly all of those human remains, he said, were also dug up from ancient Native
American burial sites.

"It's very staggering," Carpenter said.

"Why would anybody have that many human bones?" Werner asked.

"I don't know. I truly don't know," Carpenter said.

Watch CBS News anytime, anywhere
Native American burial sites dating back thousands of years have been a source of with the our 24/7 digital news network
fascination for archeologists for decades. One old government film showed the Stream CBSN live or on demand for
excavation of an ancient Native American village in Alabama. Over time, many FREE on your TV, computer, tablet, or
other sites have been looted by people seeking artifacts and even skeletons. smartphone.

"This comes down to a basic human right," said Holly Cusack-McVeigh, a Watch Now
professor of archaeology brought in by the FBI on the Miller case.
Popular On CBS News
"We have to think about the context of: Who has been the target of grave robbing
for centuries? Whose ancestors have been collected for hobby?" Cusack-McVeigh
said. "And this comes down to racism. They aren't digging white graves."
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Experts determined the remains found at Miller's residence likely came from
Native American tribes including the Arikara. In North Dakota, tribal official Pete 02 Former NBA star Mike Bibby
under investigation for alleged
sexual abuse
Coffey is working with the FBI to bring them home.

"All too often here we have been treated as curiosities rather than a people here,"
Coffey said. "They could very well be my own great, great, great, great grandfather, 03 Green beans, squash sold at
Walmart recalled
or grandmother, you know, that had been – I characterize it as being ripped out of
the earth, you know."

04
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2/26/2019 Human bones found: While seizing thousands of artifacts from an Indiana home, FBI makes "staggering" discovery of human remains - C…

Miller died in 2015. We wanted to know what his widow thought about all this, so
we went to Miller's home, where a Chinese terracotta warrior figure stood guard
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outside.

"I can't comment on the situation at this time," Miller's wife said. 05 Rita Braver
6 views

But Carpenter believes in his later years, Miller understood the ramifications of
what he did.

"I think he felt compelled to try and do the right thing and return these home,"
Carpenter said.

Returning those Native American ancestors home is what Carpenter calls the FBI's
most important mission now.

"You have to treat these people with dignity. These are human beings and people.
It matters. It has meaning to people today, it has meaning to our children and
their children," Carpenter said.

So far, the FBI has already returned items from Miller's collection to several
countries, including Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, and Mexico. A Chinese
delegation will go to Indianapolis this week to claim artifacts. They have already
returned some Native American ancestral remains to tribes in the South Dakota
region and are planning a large-scale repatriation of remains to other tribes in the
coming months.
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