COLUMBUS – A Jackson County man will serve three years’ probation and pay over $4,000 in fines and restitution after pleading guilty purchasing human remains of Native Americans, a violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
Mark Beatty, of Wellston, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Columbus Thursday to three years of probation, including three months of house arrest, ordered to pay a $3,500 fine and $1,000 in restitution to the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, according to a statement from the office of acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman.
Beatty, 57, also agreed to publish an advertisement in a circulation warning others not to engage in illegal excavation of Native American bones and artifacts and sentenced to perform 100 hours of community service for a program that protects or promotes the interests of Native Americans.
Beatty pleaded guilty in August 2015 to illegally buying remains uncovered by three men in rural Jackson County. All three have pleaded guilty to charges of illegally trafficking in Native American remains.
An anthropologist confirmed that the human remains unearthed on Sour Run Road in 2012 were identifiable by cradle boarding, used only by Native American Indians in North America. An archeologist verified that rock shelters like the one where the remains were found were used extensively for burials in southern Ohio and specifically in Jackson County. DNA testing confirmed a direct connection between tribes living thousands of years ago to present day Native Americans.