- 5/27/2025
They are the most spectacular—and rarest—creatures ever to walk the Earth. And they are for sale. In remote badlands, paleontologists have to compete with commercial fossil hunters to get at dinosaur bones. We follow the trail of legal and illegal fossil-dealing as the FBI tries to prevent the best Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever found from winding up on the shelves of a souvenir shop.
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00:00When the best T-Rex ever is found, everyone wants a piece of the action.
00:07The feds.
00:08The ranchers.
00:09It's worth a whole lot more than $5,000.
00:10The lawyers.
00:11Is this a victory cigar?
00:12You got that right.
00:13The scientists.
00:14The science is going to be close to doomed.
00:15It's a showdown in the Badlands.
00:16Curse of T-Rex.
00:17Nova is funded by Merck.
00:48Merck.
00:49Pharmaceutical research.
00:50Dedicated to preventing disease and improving health.
00:51Merck.
00:52Committed to bringing out the best in medicine.
00:53And by Prudential.
00:54Prudential.
00:55Insurance.
00:56Healthcare.
00:57Real estate.
00:58And financial services.
00:59For more than a century.
01:00Bringing strength.
01:01And value.
01:02Prudential.
01:03Prudential.
01:04Prudential.
01:05Prudential.
01:06Prudential.
01:07Prudential.
01:08Prudential.
01:09Prudential.
01:10Prudential.
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01:12Prudential.
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01:14Prudential.
01:15Prudential.
01:16Prudential.
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01:18Prudential.
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01:45For those who hope to reconstruct the story of life on Earth,
01:50to reveal the substance of creatures long vanished,
01:54and the origin of those that live today,
01:58fossil bones are vital clues.
02:06They're unlike any other objects of scientific study.
02:11So rare, so irreplaceable, and so compelling,
02:16that they're often viewed as treasure.
02:24And treasure can be a curse as well as a blessing.
02:32On May 14, 1992, the town of Hill City, South Dakota, woke up to a raid.
02:39Thirty-five federal agents, police and National Guardsmen
02:43surrounded a warehouse owned by Peter Larson.
02:48I just couldn't believe it was happening.
02:50I walked outside.
02:51There was FBI agents, sheriff's officers running around with guns
02:54and police line all around the building.
02:57It was just, it was like a dream.
03:01Word spread that they were looking for a vicious predator named Sue.
03:05But no shots were fired.
03:07And in the end, Sue went peacefully.
03:12All ten tons.
03:14The finest specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex ever found.
03:22T-Rex.
03:24The undisputed king of the dinosaurs.
03:27Among the largest carnivores ever to walk the Earth.
03:31Is still creating an uproar 65 million years after drawing its last living breath.
03:40This T-Rex, half its bones still encased in rock,
03:44is at the center of a government crackdown on modern-day prospectors
03:48who hunt for gold in the form of fossil bones.
03:54The prime target for the better part of a decade.
03:58The prime target for the better part of a decade
04:01has been the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research.
04:11Over the past twenty years,
04:13Peter Larson, his brother Neil, and partner Bob Farrar
04:17have built a thriving commercial fossil business.
04:22Yearly sales in the neighborhood of a million dollars
04:25make them the biggest players in the small world of the fossil trade.
04:35Their small museum in Hill City is a popular stop on the summer tourist trail.
04:46But their real business is collecting, repairing,
04:50and selling fossils to museums, universities,
04:53and private collectors around the world.
05:01They're known in the trade as dealers in everything
05:03from inexpensive fossil invertebrates to dinosaurs
05:07that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
05:13The Larson brothers have been digging fossils since they were children
05:16growing up on the family ranch in South Dakota.
05:23But as the raid continued,
05:25they suddenly found themselves on dangerous ground.
05:30They came through here and they,
05:32well, for instance, they were going through our files,
05:34they came and looking for photographs.
05:36This was all full of photographs.
05:38They'd pull open a drawer and they'd start rifling through
05:40and looking, do I want this document or do I want that document?
05:43So I tried to get their badge numbers and their names
05:45and the one person in charge said,
05:48you can have my badge number and my name,
05:50you do not get anybody else's name.
05:52You will take no photographs, you will take no notes.
05:54He said, this is a serious thing.
05:56He said, if you cooperate, everything will go fine.
05:59If you do not cooperate, we will throw you to the ground and arrest you.
06:02So we cooperated.
06:08When the trucks drove away,
06:10people started singing the national anthem
06:12and everybody was just crying.
06:14It was just the saddest thing that I've ever experienced.
06:17It was like a funeral.
06:19It was like Sue had died for the second time.
06:30Their troubles began during the summer of 1990
06:33when they became acquainted with the owner of a ranch
06:36on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
06:43Morris Williams invited the Black Hills crew
06:46to look around on his property.
06:49I told him, I said, you can go over there and look around sometimes
06:52if you want to.
06:54And that's all I remember ever saying to him
06:57as an invitation to come.
06:59I told him at that time that we'd be,
07:02if we did find something important, we'd be happy to pay him.
07:05We couldn't pay him much, but we would be happy to pay him
07:07for those fossils. He said, no, that wouldn't be necessary.
07:13A few days later, Sue Hendrickson went exploring on the Williams ranch.
07:20At the bottom of a cliff, she discovered some interesting bone fragments,
07:24which she took back to Larson.
07:27I'd never seen the inside of a T-Rex vertebrae before,
07:30but I knew that was what I was looking at the minute I saw these things.
07:33I immediately threw down my tools and said, let's go.
07:38At the cliff face, the Larson brothers saw
07:41what appeared to be the find of a lifetime,
07:44a Tyrannosaurus rex embedded in the rock.
07:48Sue Hendrickson called me up one evening
07:51and said that they had found this large Tyrannosaurus rex
07:55fossil in a cliff up here.
07:58Isn't it exciting, she said.
08:01And I said, well, I guess so.
08:08For the Black Hills crew, it would be hard to imagine anything more exciting.
08:14A Tyrannosaurus rex is the ultimate prize for a fossil hunter.
08:20It's been that way since the first one was discovered
08:23at the turn of the century.
08:27Christened the Tyrant Lizard King,
08:30the 45-foot monster with 8-inch teeth
08:33became a huge favorite with the public
08:36and a continuing fascination for science.
08:41But for all its notoriety,
08:44T. rex is known from only a handful of skeletons,
08:47none more than 75% complete.
08:53So the discovery on Morris Williams Ranch was incredible.
09:01More than 90% complete,
09:03it was also the largest T. rex ever found
09:06with a beautifully preserved skull.
09:12They named it Sue after its discoverer
09:15and documented the excavation on home video.
09:20Fully prepared, this T. rex could be worth millions of dollars.
09:25But Larson told Morris Williams
09:27they planned to make it the centerpiece of their own museum in Hill City.
09:32You are going to mount him in Hill City?
09:34Yeah.
09:35Good.
09:36And under that you'll save a piece of pedestal
09:38stolen from Morris Williams.
09:43Larson wrote Williams a check for $5,000
09:46and finished the excavation.
09:54Back at their place in Hill City,
09:56as they began chipping away at the rock matrix,
09:59they realized that Sue was even more impressive
10:02than they'd first thought.
10:07Unusual details such as bite wounds on the skull,
10:12a healed broken leg,
10:14and one of only two known T. rex upper arm bones
10:18added to its scientific interest.
10:23Sue clearly ranked among the finest dinosaurs ever found.
10:30So when the story of the discovery appeared in the newspaper,
10:33a number of parties took more than a casual interest.
10:39The tribal council of the Cheyenne River Sioux
10:41checked the status of Morris Williams' ranch.
10:45They discovered that although he owns the property,
10:49years ago he put it in trust with the federal government
10:52to make it exempt from property taxes,
10:55a common practice on reservation land.
11:00The tribe contended that no one could buy any part of his land,
11:04including fossils, without government permission.
11:09The tribal chairman claimed that Larson admitted knowing as much
11:13soon after the discovery.
11:15One of the first things that Mr. Larson said,
11:18I knew I was on a reservation,
11:20I knew I should get permission,
11:24I knew a lot of things that I should have done,
11:26but I didn't do them because we found this world's greatest T. rex,
11:32we came, we saw, we dug, and we ran.
11:37There were no permits to get.
11:40The tribe did not have a permitting system.
11:42Since this is private land,
11:44there is no permitting system from the federal government
11:47that was necessary to get.
11:49We had the necessary permission of the landowner.
11:53We did not need permission from the tribe.
11:56And did he ever admit guilt, as Greg Borland claimed?
12:01No, I never made that statement.
12:06But the tribal council disagreed
12:08and drafted a resolution asking the U.S. attorney
12:11to help them get the dinosaur back.
12:14Quite simply put, Sue belongs to the people of this reservation.
12:20Mr. Williams entered into a bogus or an illegal deal with the Institute,
12:26a deal that is currently under federal investigation.
12:32Mr. Williams and the Institute thereby both forfeit any rights to the T. rex.
12:41Meanwhile, Morris Williams asked the U.S. attorney
12:44to help him get the dinosaur back,
12:47denying that he ever sold it to Larson in the first place.
12:51Well, I'm assuming he got that idea from that check that he wrote.
12:55But there was no mention of any sale between he and I of anything.
13:01We agreed on a price of $5,000 for the fossil and the rights thereof,
13:06and we wrote him a check, and he took the check and cashed it.
13:11I'm assuming it's worth a whole lot more than $5,000.
13:15It's something that turns out to be so wonderful that everybody wants it.
13:23So almost two years later, the U.S. attorney for South Dakota
13:27ordered the dinosaur seized and began a criminal investigation
13:32of the Black Hills Institute.
13:35I'm going to fight this thing until 50 years after I'm dead if I have to.
13:38The government's wrong.
13:40The government is not correct in what they've done here.
13:42The government is not correct in what they've done here.
13:49Fossil hunting and fossil wars have been part of the North American experience
13:54ever since white settlers began carving up the land west of the Mississippi
13:59in the 19th century.
14:05Discoveries of fantastic skeletons created a sensation.
14:12The big eastern museums hired fossil hunters to stake claims and dig up the bones.
14:20Competition was intense and not always friendly.
14:26Dig sites were often armed camps.
14:32Back east, museums prepared the specimens for display.
14:37But eventually, the dinosaur halls were full.
14:40Collection efforts were scaled back
14:43and then virtually wiped out by the Great Depression.
14:51But in the 1970s, dinosaurs came roaring back.
15:01With new discoveries, their image changed.
15:04From lumbering reptiles to active, possibly warm-blooded animals.
15:14Now they're an industry in themselves
15:17and an early interest in science for children around the world.
15:24People everywhere want dinosaurs.
15:27But robotic theme parks like this one near Tokyo
15:30aren't enough to satisfy true dinosaur lovers.
15:36Unfortunately, fossils of the real thing are harder to come by.
15:44Dinosaurs lived all over the world, from the Arctic to the South Pole.
15:49But good quality skeletons are extremely rare.
15:53None have been found in Japan and few in Europe.
15:56But they are found in North America.
16:00So museum buyers from around the world
16:03join the crowd at huge fossil shows each year in Tucson and Denver.
16:08Want me to spin it for you?
16:10Perfect sutures.
16:14Most countries have strict laws governing the export of fossils.
16:19But America is one of them.
16:22But America is one of them.
16:25But America is one of them.
16:29In America, there are not so very much rules.
16:32It's a free country and you can buy here what you want.
16:37The Black Hills Institute is just one of many dealers
16:40selling North American fossils to a broad range of customers.
16:46At the low end of the market are buyers from educational supply houses,
16:50schools and gift shops looking for common, inexpensive fossils.
16:58Further up the scale are national retailers and high-end fossil shops
17:02catering to private collectors and decorators.
17:07And at the top end are international museum buyers
17:11looking for impressive and rare display pieces.
17:21But not everyone is happy about the booming fossil trade.
17:26Least of all, professional paleontologists
17:29like Robert Hunt of the University of Nebraska.
17:33I become saddened by what I see in many commercial fossil shows,
17:37particularly the shows in Tucson and in Denver.
17:40You do see vertebrate fossils that are scientifically significant,
17:44fossils that will probably be only found in the United States.
17:48Fossils that will probably be only found in maybe a century
17:52on display and for sale to the highest bidder.
17:56Many times those fossils, when they're sold at those meetings,
17:59are never seen again.
18:01And we all know that there's a tremendous loss of information.
18:07A big concern among paleontologists like Jack Horner
18:11is that commercial collectors don't always take the time
18:14to preserve the context of the fossils they find.
18:18They find small clues that give fossils meaning.
18:22The kinds of data that we are now collecting
18:25to see what dinosaurs were like as living animals
18:28and what their paleoecology was like and their environments were like
18:32includes collecting not just dinosaurs, but everything else.
18:36And if people just go in and are just taking the pretty stuff out,
18:42that ruins what we're trying to do.
18:48In the summer of 1990, while the Black Hills Institute
18:51was excavating Sioux in South Dakota,
18:54Jack Horner's crew was busy excavating another T. rex
18:57200 miles away in Montana.
19:06Working slowly and carefully to preserve all the information at the site,
19:10Horner's dig took ten people five weeks to complete.
19:18It took six people from the Black Hills Institute
19:21less than three weeks to get Sioux out of the ground.
19:25We collect very carefully, but we have to do our job
19:30in a way in which we can support ourselves.
19:33And we can't afford to waste time taking years to excavate specimens.
19:38We have to do it in a way that is expeditious.
19:44Kirby Sieber is one of the biggest fossil dealers in Europe
19:47and a longtime friend and business associate of Peter Larson.
19:54Here at a private quarry in Wyoming,
19:57he's excavating a young apatosaur for his own museum in Switzerland.
20:07He thinks many good commercial collectors
20:10are unfairly blamed for the actions of a few.
20:14The people that are lumped into the so-called commercial collectors,
20:19that's a very diverse group.
20:21And that goes from the people that on weekends
20:24go on their four-wheelers and drive out
20:27and just pick up scrapped dinosaur bones
20:30to people like us who do, you know,
20:33probably there's very few crews in the world
20:36that have so much digging experience like us.
20:40Sieber admits, though, that science and commerce
20:43sometimes require different approaches.
20:47Our primary aim is to dig for displayable fossils,
20:52for museum display-grade fossils.
20:55If our primary goal was studying certain aspects
20:59of petrification, dinosaur bone structure, whatever,
21:03we would probably dig slightly different.
21:07That's why it's good that there are many different groups digging.
21:11Each one will have a slightly different approach.
21:14I believe in diversity.
21:23European commercial collectors
21:25are used to a more cooperative relationship with paleontologists,
21:29and Sieber insists on quality documentation.
21:33It just makes plain sense to do it this way.
21:37When we do things, we like to do them right.
21:41It really preserves, enhances the value of the specimen.
21:46The better you have it documented,
21:49the better your product is in the end.
21:55The comparison must be made fairly.
21:58Compare the best of commercial collecting
22:01with the best of scientific collecting.
22:04You can have commercial collectors that are very scrupulous,
22:09that are collecting data at their own site.
22:14They're not messing with anyone.
22:16They're keeping good records.
22:18They do the preparation, they mount specimens,
22:20they sell them somewhere, some museum,
22:22and it's all accessible.
22:24There's nothing wrong with that.
22:26But if I'm out collecting somewhere,
22:28and someone comes out and digs up a dinosaur
22:31that I've got half out of the ground,
22:33that's irritating.
22:35That's more than irritating.
22:37We have had sites in Nebraska
22:39that were actively excavated by our university,
22:42invaded by commercial businesses,
22:44and we have lost material
22:46and lost vital information because of that.
22:50Fossils have been literally bought
22:52out from underneath the scientists.
22:55Someone comes in and just makes a new deal
22:57with private landowners.
23:00That's what happened to David Weishample
23:02of Johns Hopkins University.
23:04After three years of work at a site on private land,
23:07he arrived one summer to find that he was no longer welcome.
23:11He blames the change on the arrival
23:13of commercial collectors in the area.
23:16What they were doing was offering people money
23:18for the opportunity for them to go out
23:20and prospect and collect.
23:22And within a year, landowners were demanding
23:25to be paid for permission to come out
23:27and work these sites again,
23:29and in fact I wasn't able to return to them.
23:34Like most scientists,
23:35Weishample has neither the budget
23:37nor the inclination to compete
23:39with commercial collectors.
23:42I don't think that everything,
23:44every physical object,
23:46really demands that it have a price tag put on it.
23:49Why can't we respect fossils for what they are?
23:51They're parcels of the history of life.
23:54Why should that be treated as something
23:56that can be bought and sold?
23:58Some people, some of the academia,
24:01they have this hang-up about prices.
24:04They think that you shouldn't put the price on a fossil.
24:07It's immoral to put the price on a fossil,
24:10but let's face it.
24:12Everything has, in a way, has its price.
24:15Americans are the ones that surely know
24:17that everything has a price.
24:19And so even a fossil,
24:21why not put a price on a fossil?
24:23It represents work.
24:25It represents a rarity.
24:27I mean, this price can be determined,
24:29like some price.
24:30Why are the academics that say
24:32we don't want to put the price on it?
24:34Never, ever.
24:35It's immoral.
24:36This I don't understand.
24:41Most American museums cannot afford
24:43to buy top-end dinosaurs
24:45from commercial dealers.
24:49With a few exceptions,
24:50they use their own staff paleontologists
24:52to collect new specimens.
24:56But foreign museums are a different story.
25:00Especially in Japan,
25:02where many new museums are in development,
25:04paying the high cost
25:06of commercially collected fossils
25:08is the quickest way to build
25:10new collections from scratch.
25:16Yeah.
25:19Even so,
25:20commercial collectors
25:21who work without institutional support
25:23claim selling fossils
25:25is no way to get rich.
25:28It's a tremendous output of money
25:30that goes into the digging,
25:32the excavation,
25:33the cleaning, preparation,
25:35and mounting of that dinosaur.
25:38One of our dinosaurs
25:39takes 15,000 hours to prepare.
25:42There is not one commercial fossil dealer
25:46that has gotten rich, ever.
25:48If you can find one,
25:50I'd sure like to know who he is,
25:52and maybe I could sell him some stuff.
25:56In the year following the seizure,
25:58the Black Hills Institute
26:00wages an all-out war to free Sue.
26:07They run an aggressive
26:08public relations campaign
26:10out of their Hill City office.
26:12A 50-piece mailing has to go out
26:14to the AAPS members,
26:16and it's all going to be packed
26:17and ready to go by Friday night.
26:22We get in here every day,
26:23hundreds of people who say,
26:25you've got to get Sue back,
26:26you've got to keep up what you're doing,
26:28and that gives us strength.
26:30Free Sue!
26:32It's the one with Sue coming out of jail.
26:37There's no justification for it.
26:40Every visitor to the gift shop
26:42gets a crash course in fossil politics.
26:47Through It All is a constant theme
26:49of abuse of power by the government.
26:52People are paying attention
26:53to what goes on here,
26:55and they're not going to be able
26:56to do the type of thing
26:57that they have been able to do
26:58in other cases,
26:59and it just goes away.
27:01It's not going to go away here.
27:02We're never going to quit this fight.
27:05Their attorneys file a civil suit
27:06against the government,
27:08demanding the return of Sue.
27:11And the dinosaur sits in a warehouse
27:13in Rapid City
27:14while the custody battle rages on.
27:18Vote for Sue here!
27:20Vote!
27:21Vote for Sue!
27:24Public protests mounted by the Institute
27:26get louder and more abrasive.
27:31U.S. Attorney Kevin Schieffer
27:32is singled out for special abuse.
27:36The attack is relentless
27:38and sometimes ugly.
27:43It's not a pleasant situation
27:45in any event,
27:46but we do what we have to do.
27:48Schieffer doesn't have much
27:49to say in public,
27:51but behind the scenes
27:52he's turned up the heat
27:53on the criminal investigation
27:55of the Institute.
27:59In January 1993,
28:01federal prosecutors subpoena
28:02thousands of B.H.I. business records.
28:05V.O. notes and everything else.
28:07Photo albums.
28:09Every piece of work we've ever done
28:11that we liked
28:12and we took pictures of,
28:13and pictures that people have sent us,
28:15it's all here.
28:19It's all gone.
28:23Investigators sift through
28:24the seized records
28:25looking for evidence of crimes,
28:29specifically of taking fossils
28:31from federal land.
28:36The western states are checkerboards
28:38of private and public land.
28:41National parks,
28:42Forest Service,
28:43BLM,
28:44and parts of Indian reservations.
28:50It's often arid, eroded country
28:52passed up by homesteaders
28:54in the 1800s.
28:58But that same quality
28:59makes it a rich source of fossils
29:02as new specimens
29:03weather out of the ground.
29:08It's long been government policy
29:10to deny access
29:11to commercial collectors.
29:13Collecting without a permit
29:14amounts to theft
29:15of government property,
29:17though the law
29:18has rarely been enforced.
29:22Former park ranger
29:23Vin Santusi
29:24has spent years
29:25documenting cases
29:27of fossil poaching
29:28in national parks.
29:31People were getting
29:32either a slap on the wrist
29:33or no penalties at all.
29:36It incensed me
29:37in a personal way
29:38that, boy, fossils
29:40don't receive the respect
29:41they deserve.
29:43You know, if this was
29:44an archaeological site
29:45or if somebody shot a buffalo,
29:47my gosh,
29:48the SWAT team would be out.
29:50But because we're talking
29:51about fossils at that time,
29:53people just didn't really
29:54have the energy
29:55and the enthusiasm
29:56to correct this problem.
30:00But now there's energy
30:02and enthusiasm to spare.
30:06Using field notes
30:07seized from the
30:08Black Hills Institute,
30:10investigators begin searching
30:11for illegal excavation sites
30:13on federal land.
30:17It was a surprisingly
30:18difficult thing to do.
30:20I guess if you didn't
30:21think about it,
30:22you'd think,
30:23what's there to it?
30:24But we had to prove
30:26where particular
30:27specimens came from.
30:29We established that
30:30that was, in fact,
30:31government land,
30:32that there wasn't
30:33any permission given
30:34for taking those fossils.
30:39In fact,
30:40their field notes
30:41were very good,
30:42and that's how we determined
30:43that a number of them
30:45did come off federal lands.
30:49At each site,
30:50they also searched
30:51for evidence
30:52that would tie
30:53BHI employees
30:54to the location.
31:00As the investigation grows,
31:02dozens of agents
31:03follow leads
31:04all over the West
31:06and as far away
31:07as Japan
31:08and South America.
31:15In July 1993,
31:17the FBI returns
31:18to Hill City,
31:19armed with a search warrant.
31:22They came into this office,
31:24locked the door,
31:25and they were in there
31:26with the computers,
31:27apparently copying everything
31:28from our computer
31:29onto their computer.
31:31Everything,
31:32all of our financial files,
31:34our...
31:35They took unopened mail,
31:36they opened mail,
31:37they did all kinds of...
31:38They took things
31:39such as the client,
31:40the confidential client file
31:42from our attorney in there.
31:44It didn't matter what.
31:45If they thought
31:46they had a use for it,
31:47they took it.
31:49The Department of the Interior,
31:50of course,
31:51has been involved.
31:52BLM,
31:53Bureau of Land Management,
31:54has been involved.
31:55Forest Service
31:56has been involved.
31:57It would probably be hard
31:58from the Pentagon
31:59all the way to Smokey the Bear
32:00to find anybody
32:01who hasn't been involved
32:02in this case
32:03at one point or another.
32:04Apparently,
32:05they're investigating
32:06our entire lives.
32:09Certainly back to...
32:10At least as far as 1974
32:12when we started this business
32:14with the allegation of
32:15multi-state criminal activity.
32:18These allegations
32:19are all unfounded.
32:32144,000 acres
32:33of South Dakota's
32:34Badlands National Park
32:36overlap the Pine Ridge Reservation
32:38of the Ogallala Sioux.
32:41The tribe is responsible
32:42for enforcing
32:43park regulations
32:44on this part
32:45of the reservation.
32:48Terry Roy
32:49is the chief ranger
32:50for tribal land.
32:55He spends a lot of time
32:56chasing fossil poachers.
33:07Terry Roy
33:09We have close to
33:105,000 square miles
33:11to cover with only
33:12like seven rangers,
33:14enforcement rangers
33:15to do the task.
33:16And it's an extremely
33:17difficult task
33:19to say the least.
33:21Yo, J.R.
33:22You got somebody down there.
33:26From your left
33:27just go straight down.
33:30He's just bending over now
33:32picking something up.
33:33Most of the time
33:34poachers in this part
33:35of the park
33:36are local people.
33:39The violators
33:40know the Badlands
33:41in this area
33:42probably better than we do.
33:44They practically live out here.
33:46Day from sunup to sundown
33:48just about every day
33:49they're spending out here.
33:50They know all the tricks
33:51of the trade.
33:52They know where to hide,
33:53where not to hide.
33:54They know our routines.
33:55They monitor our radio frequencies.
33:58They know our maps.
33:59They know our sectors,
34:00our patrol schedules,
34:02everything.
34:04It's sort of a game of intelligence.
34:19Just because we're able to see them
34:21doesn't mean we're going to get them.
34:24There's quite the route
34:25between us and them
34:26even if we have visual contact.
34:33Junior, it looks like
34:34he's still digging down here.
34:36Go ahead and keep going down.
34:37It's slow.
34:41He's spotted you now, Junior.
34:48It's common knowledge
34:49among the rangers
34:50that local poachers
34:51are working for dealers
34:52off the reservation.
34:56It's bounty hunting.
34:58They would specify
34:59what sort of items
35:00they're looking for.
35:03They want complete skulls.
35:04They want the best possible specimen
35:06they can find
35:07within the Badlands.
35:10Once they actually
35:12go through that process
35:14and see how much money is involved,
35:16they're pretty much
35:18got them hook, line and sink here.
35:27The Pine Ridge Reservation
35:28has the lowest per capita income
35:30of any county
35:31in the United States.
35:34Unemployment is 80%.
35:39Calvin Ferguson
35:40has a part-time job
35:41as a bus driver.
35:44But until recently
35:45he was doing much better
35:46as a fossil hunter.
35:49Most money I ever made
35:50on a fossil is $2,500.
35:54I was on a cast call.
35:58I wasn't hurting nobody.
36:00Just out making money.
36:03It's something I always
36:04love to do too.
36:05It's just like
36:06every day was different.
36:08It's like going
36:10treasure hunting every day.
36:13Sometimes it'd take you
36:14a week to make $500
36:17or it'd take you
36:18one day to make $500
36:20or it all depends
36:22on how your day went,
36:24how lucky you was.
36:27Over the years,
36:28the buyers showed
36:29the local people
36:30how to make a living
36:31in the fossil trade.
36:34They were there
36:35with the money
36:36and we learned
36:37a lot from them too.
36:41Told us where
36:42the good zones were
36:43to hunt that might
36:44made the most money
36:45and the quickest money.
36:49Federal investigators
36:50suspect that some
36:51of those fossils
36:52were finding their way
36:53to the Black Hills Institute
36:56but when the rangers
36:57started cracking down
36:58on the poachers,
36:59the buyers got scarce.
37:03Seems like right about
37:04when that Sioux thing
37:06started going on
37:07about that T-Rex
37:08and that's when
37:09about the park service
37:10started to get going too
37:11on the reservation
37:12and that's when
37:13the white guys
37:14got scared
37:15and didn't want to
37:16come down and get caught.
37:20The fossil trade
37:21can be a dangerous
37:22business.
37:24The fossil trade
37:25can be a mixed blessing
37:26for Native Americans.
37:30We have a great
37:31respect for the land.
37:32Our culture pretty much
37:33dictates that.
37:34There's a lot of
37:35traditional people
37:36that would see
37:37any exploitation
37:38of the resources
37:39being wrong
37:40regardless of
37:41the economic need
37:42but a person like
37:43Calvin and other people
37:45you know,
37:46it's understandable.
37:48We're not looking to
37:51prosecute, convict
37:52anybody on this level
37:54because in my opinion
37:55they're the ones
37:56that's being taken
37:57advantage of,
37:58them and the resources.
37:59I think we should
38:00do it in the right way
38:01like issuing out
38:02permits to the
38:03tribal members
38:04with the park service
38:05here on the reservation
38:06is trying to do
38:07is make it legal
38:08for tribal members
38:09and giving out
38:10permits but
38:12it'd be best to
38:13give out permits
38:14to the ones that
38:15are, that have
38:16been doing it
38:17for a while
38:18and know what
38:19they're doing
38:20instead of
38:21amateurs.
38:26In the meantime,
38:27Calvin drives the bus
38:28and looks forward
38:29to being a
38:30legitimate collector
38:31someday.
38:34A change that
38:35would not only
38:36provide some local
38:37employment
38:38but would also help
38:39deter the most
38:40serious threat
38:41posed to paleontology
38:42by the fossil
38:43black market.
38:46Illegal traders
38:47attempting to
38:48cover their tracks.
38:50If fossils
38:51are collected
38:52illegally,
38:53if data is not
38:54accurate,
38:55if specimens are
38:56reported to come
38:57from Wyoming
38:58but in fact
38:59they really come
39:00from Montana,
39:02the raw material
39:03of science,
39:04the hard data
39:05that we need to
39:06reconstruct
39:07environments of the
39:08past, evolution
39:09and so forth,
39:10we can't trust
39:11that data
39:12and once we can't
39:13trust the data,
39:14we can't trust
39:15the science that
39:16comes from that data.
39:19In November 1993,
39:20a federal grand jury
39:21in Rapid City
39:22returns a 39-count
39:23indictment
39:24charging the
39:25Black Hills Institute
39:26partners
39:27with 15 instances
39:28of fossil theft
39:29from public land
39:30and a long list
39:31of white-collar crimes
39:32like conspiracy
39:33and wire fraud
39:34arising from the
39:35sale of those
39:36fossils.
39:40In November 1993,
39:41a federal grand jury
39:42in Rapid City
39:43returns a 39-count
39:44indictment
39:45charging the
39:46Black Hills Institute
39:47partners
39:49Around the same time,
39:50the Eighth Circuit
39:51Court of Appeals
39:52rules that the
39:53Institute has
39:54no legal claim
39:55to the T-Rex
39:56called Sue.
39:58Bad news.
40:02Let's shut the door
40:03and I'll tell you,
40:04I'll talk to you
40:05about it,
40:06I'll tell you about
40:07how the...
40:08The partners gather
40:09at lawyer
40:10Patrick Duffy's
40:11office to hear
40:12the details.
40:13Well,
40:14Morris Williams
40:15owns Sue.
40:16The United States
40:17has Sue
40:19in trust
40:20for Morris Williams.
40:21I mean,
40:22to put it simply,
40:23it's his dinosaur now.
40:25Petition for cert
40:26to the United States
40:27Supreme Court
40:28would be the next step.
40:30And,
40:31depending on whether
40:32it's granted
40:33or denied,
40:34that would determine
40:35how much longer
40:36this is going to go on.
40:38This is also
40:39bad news
40:40for the Cheyenne
40:41River Sioux
40:42who have lost
40:43their claim
40:44to the T-Rex as well.
40:46We have a long-standing
40:47history of
40:48getting screwed by
40:50some unscrupulous
40:51type folks
40:53around the country
40:54including
40:56other governments.
40:57So,
40:58we're pretty much
40:59used to this
41:00kind of stuff.
41:03With what's happened
41:04throughout this,
41:05it's almost as if
41:06you think of
41:07the mummy's curse.
41:08It's the curse of Sue
41:09that everybody
41:10who's touched by this
41:11is in some way harmed.
41:16On December 10th,
41:171993,
41:18the Black Hills
41:19defendants report
41:20to the federal courthouse
41:21to plead not guilty
41:22to all counts
41:23of the criminal indictment.
41:27There are no charges
41:28relating to the T-Rex,
41:30but the defendants contend
41:31they are being targeted
41:32because of Sue.
41:36This indictment,
41:3739 counts worth,
41:39exists in the form
41:40it does
41:41to punish my clients
41:42for having spoken out
41:43against an absolutely
41:44punitive raid
41:45by the federal government.
41:47Had they never spoken,
41:48I'm confident,
41:49had they never spoken out,
41:50had they never taken
41:51their case to the street,
41:52so to speak,
41:53we wouldn't be sitting
41:54here today.
41:57The prosecutors
41:58who've been working
41:59the case for more
42:00than three years
42:01deny that there's
42:02any retribution involved
42:04despite the
42:05anti-government rhetoric
42:06of the Save Sue campaign.
42:09Something you have
42:10to understand is that
42:11this case,
42:12this case
42:13went through
42:14three U.S. attorneys
42:15and even if you
42:16wanted to believe
42:17that one person
42:18might have had
42:19some personal animosity,
42:21it kind of
42:22stretches the imagination
42:23a bit to think that
42:24three U.S. attorneys
42:25in a row
42:26would have the same
42:27personal vendetta
42:28against some defendants
42:30and that's just
42:31not true.
42:32That's not what
42:33drove the case.
42:34The United States
42:35holds the dinosaur
42:36Sue in trust
42:37for Maurice Williams,
42:38but that does not
42:39have a bearing
42:40on the criminal case
42:41The prosecutors
42:42have little to say
42:43to the press.
42:44They've spent millions
42:45of dollars
42:46building their case
42:47and don't want it
42:48jeopardized with
42:49pre-trial publicity.
42:53It's been expensive
42:54for the defendants as well
42:55who have run up
42:56legal bills
42:57over $100,000.
43:04That night
43:05they gathered
43:06at Peter Larson's house
43:07to watch the news.
43:09Christmas won't be
43:10coming early
43:11for the Black Hills
43:12Institute.
43:13Following a ruling
43:14from the 8th Circuit
43:15Court of Appeals
43:16that Sue the
43:17Tyrannosaurus Rex
43:18belongs to the
43:19federal government,
43:20not the Institute.
43:21The ruling couldn't
43:22come at a worse time
43:23for the Institute
43:24as employees
43:25appear in court
43:26to face 39 counts
43:27of illegally taking
43:28other fossils
43:29from the government.
43:32For the first time
43:33ever in the United States,
43:35people are facing
43:36serious jail time
43:37for fossil crimes.
43:39Interstate transportation
43:40of stolen goods,
43:41money laundering
43:42and obstruction of justice.
43:44If convicted,
43:45the defendants face
43:46fines of up to
43:47$500,000
43:48and up to 10 years
43:49in prison.
43:50Up to 10 years
43:51in prison?
43:53In fact,
43:54they each face
43:55more than 300 years
43:56in prison
43:57and $12 million
43:58in fines.
44:01But the harsh penalties
44:02are not for the
44:03fossil thefts,
44:04which are minor
44:05offenses under
44:06current law.
44:08It's the white collar
44:09crimes that could
44:10send them to prison.
44:14Many people feel
44:15that there should be
44:16tougher laws to
44:17protect fossils
44:18in the first place.
44:20The fact is
44:21that the laws
44:22currently say
44:23that's illegal
44:24to take them.
44:25Okay?
44:26There's a permitting
44:27system that's set up
44:28to protect those fossils.
44:30The thing is
44:31that people are
44:32going ahead and
44:33taking them anyways.
44:34What is it,
44:35now,
44:36for collecting fossils
44:37on public lands?
44:38I mean, that's a slap
44:39on the wrist.
44:40It's worth the risk
44:41to a commercial collector
44:42than get a quarter
44:43of a million dollars,
44:44a half a million dollars,
44:45$800,000
44:46for a good
44:47dinosaur skeleton.
44:51To the dismay
44:52of most scientists,
44:53in the current
44:54political climate
44:55of deregulation,
44:56Congress is more
44:57likely to open up
44:58federal land
44:59to commercial collecting
45:00than to toughen
45:01laws against it.
45:02I don't like
45:03to see paleontology
45:04politicized.
45:06I didn't want to
45:07enter the maze
45:08of Washington, D.C.
45:09and contact
45:10my congressman
45:11and start
45:12lobbying
45:14for further
45:15protection of fossils.
45:16But I don't see
45:17any choice.
45:21Most commercial
45:22collectors argue
45:23that federal land
45:24should be opened up
45:25without restriction
45:26for the good
45:27of the fossils.
45:30There's millions
45:31and millions
45:32of square miles
45:33in this country
45:34that are sedimentary
45:35rock that are
45:36filled with fossils.
45:37Every time it rains
45:38there's new fossils
45:39washing out.
45:40Every time it rains
45:41there's new fossils
45:42washing away
45:43that will never
45:44be seen again.
45:45Fossils,
45:46in order to be
45:47preserved,
45:48must
45:49be
45:50collected.
45:52The best way
45:53to ensure
45:54the preservation
45:55of fossils
45:56is to collect
45:57them and to get
45:58as many people
45:59out there
46:00without
46:01letting
46:02everybody out
46:03on public land
46:04without any type
46:05of review,
46:06overview,
46:07permitting process,
46:08you wouldn't have
46:09any fossils left.
46:10When it comes
46:11to federal land,
46:12we will fight.
46:13We will do
46:14our best
46:15to preserve
46:16our right
46:17to collect there
46:18without them
46:19because it's
46:20our only
46:21place left.
46:26If the commercial
46:27collectors get into
46:28that as well
46:29and compete
46:30with us
46:31at that level,
46:32I'd say
46:34the science
46:35is going to be
46:36close to doomed.
46:42Whatever changes
46:43lie ahead
46:44in fossil law
46:45will come too late
46:46for the Black Hills
46:47Institute defendants
46:48who finally
46:49go to trial
46:50more than a year
46:51after their
46:52indictment.
46:54By all estimates
46:55it's going to be
46:56one of the longest
46:57criminal trials
46:58in the Midwest.
47:00The record alone
47:01will fill
47:02dozens of volumes.
47:03Then you'll have
47:04the appeals.
47:05The idea of getting
47:06through a trial
47:07of that length
47:08and magnitude
47:09with absolutely
47:10not one mistake
47:11being made
47:12is at best
47:13unlikely.
47:14Will we have
47:15to try it again?
47:16Who knows?
47:17They have spent
47:18so much money.
47:19They need
47:20to have a picture
47:21on the 10 o'clock news
47:22of me being
47:23put in handcuffs
47:24and being put
47:25in a car
47:26being hauled off
47:27in order to justify
47:28the expense
47:29of that
47:30taxpayer's money.
47:31They need that.
47:36After seven weeks
47:37of testimony
47:38scores of witnesses
47:39and the presentation
47:40of hundreds of
47:41pieces of evidence
47:42the case
47:43goes to the jury
47:45and the defendants
47:46go home to wait.
47:53Three weeks later
47:54the jury returns
47:55its verdict.
47:57They find Peter Larson
47:58guilty of two felonies
48:00for failure to report
48:01carrying currency
48:02over $10,000
48:03in and out
48:04of the country
48:05and two misdemeanors
48:07for theft of government
48:08property worth
48:09less than $100.
48:12Bob Farrar
48:13guilty of two felonies
48:15for undervaluing
48:16fossils on export
48:17declarations.
48:19Neil Larson
48:20guilty of one misdemeanor
48:22for theft of government
48:23property worth
48:24less than $100.
48:27And for the institute
48:28one felony
48:29for retaining
48:30a fossil fish
48:31stolen from
48:32Badlands National Park.
48:34Three felony
48:35customs violations
48:37and one misdemeanor
48:38for theft of
48:39government property.
48:43The jury votes
48:44to acquit
48:45on 73 other charges
48:47and is hung
48:48on 68.
48:54Despite eight
48:55felony convictions
48:56the defense
48:57claims victory.
48:58Any comments
48:59on the verdict today?
49:00None other than
49:01sheer delight.
49:02Why's that?
49:03Well it's
49:04we ended up with
49:05how many you guys
49:06know better than I do
49:07how many misdemeanors?
49:08Oh god I can't count
49:09right now what they
49:10had going on.
49:11Four or five
49:12and how many felonies?
49:13Three or four?
49:14So we're probably
49:15talking about
49:16maybe the most
49:17expensive misdemeanors
49:18in the history
49:19of the republic.
49:20What's the cigar?
49:21Is this the victory cigar?
49:22You got that right.
49:23See you guys.
49:25Cleared of the
49:26most serious charges
49:27but still facing
49:28the possibility
49:29of prison time
49:30when sentence is
49:31passed
49:32the Black Hills
49:33partners once again
49:34go home to wait.
49:38The message to
49:39the fossil trade
49:40is clear.
49:43Until further notice
49:44public land
49:45is off limits.
49:50Now the question is
49:51can science
49:52and commerce
49:53find ways to coexist?
49:56In at least one case
49:57they already have.
49:59Here on the
50:00Blackfeet Reservation
50:01in northern Montana.
50:05Jack Horner
50:06worked here for years
50:07before a company
50:08called Canada Fossils
50:09approached the tribe
50:10with a business proposition.
50:15They would pay
50:16tribal members
50:17to dig dinosaurs
50:18and prepare the bones
50:19and pay the tribe
50:20a royalty on sales.
50:23But first
50:24they had to contend
50:25with Jack.
50:27The Blackfeet tribe
50:28has made arrangements
50:29with Jack Horner
50:30for a long time.
50:33So when
50:34Canada Fossils
50:35came in
50:36we were kind of
50:37a little bit reluctant
50:38to just turn it over
50:39to a commercial company
50:41and put Jack out.
50:45So they went down
50:46and they met
50:47and they made
50:48a kind of a deal.
50:51When they find
50:52something
50:53that they think
50:54is unusual
50:55they bring it
50:56to my attention
50:57and I think that's good.
50:59If it's unusual enough
51:00they just turn it over.
51:03And I think that's
51:04sort of the right thing
51:05to do.
51:06It's the commercial
51:07collectors attempting
51:08to keep peace
51:09with the professionals.
51:12I'm not sure
51:13that he was particularly
51:14keen on seeing us arrive
51:15but I think that
51:16over the five years
51:17that we've been
51:18working together
51:19he's understood
51:20that we can help him.
51:23So Horner
51:24keeps an eye
51:25on the fossils
51:26coming out of the ground
51:27and makes sure
51:28that nothing important
51:29is lost to science.
51:34And Canada Fossils
51:35brings its resources
51:36to the preservation
51:37of material
51:38that might otherwise
51:39be lost to erosion.
51:46In a field
51:47with barely enough
51:48institutional support
51:49to begin with
51:50a cooperative venture
51:51like this one
51:52can help everyone involved.
51:57Including the landowner.
51:58In this case
51:59the Blackfeet.
52:01We've seen a lot
52:02of valuable fossils
52:03leave their reservation
52:04over the past hundred years.
52:08Until we made a deal
52:09with Canada Fossils
52:11the Indians
52:12never got a thing.
52:14Nothing
52:15out of these fossils.
52:16So I think
52:19they really belong
52:20to us
52:22and we should decide
52:23what we're going
52:24to do with them.
52:30Dorothy Flaman
52:31works for Canada Fossils
52:33as a digger
52:34and a preparator.
52:37She's been collecting
52:38dinosaur bones
52:39since she was
52:40a little girl.
52:42My grandmother
52:43didn't think too much of it.
52:44She told me
52:45that was a burial ground
52:46to leave it alone.
52:48She thought
52:49it was big people.
52:53She told me
52:54to bring the bones back
52:55where they come from.
52:57So I had to bring them back.
53:04I like to be out there
53:06exploring and
53:07finding dinosaurs
53:08and new species.
53:11That's just like
53:12getting a present
53:13every day
53:14when you uncover a bone.
53:16When you don't know
53:17what it is.
53:19But I sure wouldn't
53:20want to find a T-Rex.
53:23They fight too much
53:24over them.
53:47Music
54:10The dinosaurs
54:11weren't alone.
54:12Bring their world to life
54:13by sifting through
54:14the crucial evidence
54:15crucial evidence buried alongside them.
54:18Dig into NOVA's website at pbs.org.
54:39To order this show for $19.95 plus shipping and handling, call 1-800-255-9424.
54:48And to learn more about how science can solve the mysteries of our world, ask about our
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55:24NOVA is a production of WGBH Boston.
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56:01Dedicated to preventing disease.
56:04Merck, committed to bringing out the best in medicine.
56:10The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.
56:24This is PBS.
56:28Next time on NOVA, the story of a girl who spent her childhood locked in a bedroom.
56:33With footage never before seen on television, NOVA follows the controversial efforts to
56:38unlock the secret of the wild child.
56:40That's next time on NOVA.
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