Schreiner’s Media Landscape

Another suspect in the federal investigation of the theft and sale of Native American artifacts from federal land has committed suicide. When the Washington muckety-mucks announced their bust here in Utah a couple of weeks ago, most Utahns simply nodded approvingly and waited for the weather to come on. Since then however, two of the suspects have apparently killed themselves (investigations are ongoing), people in southern Utah, where most of those arrested are from, and other radical right-wing groups are loading for BLM bear, and a new, even weirder wave of anti-government sentiment is sweeping the Red State Desert.

Granted, the laws changed recently making the excavation, appropriation and sale of Native American remnants on BLM and other federal land a crime. It was and is a big issue in the Native American community: Whitey still exploiting imprisoned and oppressed aboriginals; looting of conquered lands being standard-caucasian-operating procedure since the Crusades, and a huge global network built on the plundering of ancient burial grounds, encampments and other places held sacred by America’s indigenous peoples, who weren’t making a dime from what could be considered their property.

The people arrested face prison time but the likelihood of that for most of them is slim. One suicide “victim” was a doctor who could probably afford a really good lawyer. So why kack yourself with CO in your car or a gun behind a grade school? Political martyrdom? Can these folks simply not live without the extra income they pull from selling a few dusty relics to Japanese businessmen? Some sort of bizarre pact like the Nantucket suicides? Not likely because those happened in an isolated place where winters are long, alcohol and drug abuse and depression are common. But there is one piece of info one expert said about that phenomenon that may be true in the Arti-fiasco:

Even when suicides come in clusters, they “almost never occur because of one single issue,” said Alan Holmlund, who heads suicide prevention programs at the (Massachusetts)Department of Public Health. But he said seeing their peers commit suicide may encourage teenagers who have been considering it but might not have attempted it otherwise. Such copycat phenomena are more likely in tightknit communities such as Nantucket, where the high school has only 400 students.

To me, the same thing that drew all these grave robbers together from distant parts of the globe is at the heart of the suicides. In a strange way, but one we see more of because of the Internet, these folks are a community: a social network like a strange combination of Facebook and Craigslist. The things they do with their lives and enjoy are their bond. But what happens when the bond breaks? I believe that’s what we’re seeing now. As an additionally intriguing result, the rush for people to die over a civilization and culture their ancestors helped wipe out is not only blindingly ironic, but seemingly cosmic justice.

Certainly, negotiations for the book and film rights are already underway. Any bets on Stephen King?