Native American Artifacts: Identification & Legal Considerations
Metal detectorists occasionally encounter Native American artifacts, particularly at sites with long histories of human habitation. While metal detectors don't directly find stone tools and pottery, they can lead you to sites where these are present in the soil matrix. Understanding what you might encounter and the legal framework governing indigenous artifacts is important.
What Detectorists Might Find
- Trade goods: Copper and brass items traded between European colonists and Native peoples, including modified European items (coins drilled for pendants, brass cut into arrow points, copper rolled into beads).
- Trade silver: Silver brooches, gorgets, armbands, and other ornamental items made by European silversmiths for the Indian trade, particularly in the 18th century.
- Surface finds: While detecting, you may notice arrowheads, pottery sherds, fire-cracked rock, and worked flint on the surface. These non-metallic items provide important context for a site.
Legal Framework
The legal landscape for Native American artifacts is complex and varies by location:
- Federal land: The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) makes it illegal to excavate or remove archaeological resources from federal or Indian land without a permit. Violations carry serious criminal penalties.
- State land: Most states have their own archaeological protection laws. Some are strict; others are more permissive for surface finds on private land.
- Private land: Laws vary by state, but in general, artifacts found on private land with the owner's permission belong to the landowner. However, NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) provisions may apply to burial-associated items regardless of land ownership.
Best practice: If you encounter what appears to be a burial site or a concentration of significant Native American artifacts, stop digging, note the location, and contact your state archaeologist. Some discoveries are genuinely important to tribal communities and archaeological understanding.