When a group of relic hunters drove their picks into a lost Indian burial crypt in eastern Oklahoma in 1935, they unearthed a vast treasure trove of Mississippian art—considered by many at the time to be America’s answer to King Tut’s Tomb. They also ignited a controversy that continues to have repercussions throughout archaeological and American Indian communities.

The Spiro Mounds contained some of the most impressive pre-Columbian Indian art ever found. In Looting Spiro Mounds, David La Vere takes readers behind the scenes of this discovery to re-create a Great Depression–era archaeological adventure worthy of Indiana Jones.

The looting of the mounds is considered one of the major archaeological tragedies of all time; but as La Vere shows, lines were not as clearly drawn in 1935 as they are today regarding Indian relics. University of Oklahoma anthropologist Forrest Clements did his best the stop the looting at Spiro. But when he proceeded with “official” excavations, his destructive methods—and his own dispersal of artifacts—raised even more questions.

La Vere weaves a compelling story of grave robbers and lost treasures as he pieces together the puzzle of the civilization that thrived at Spiro a.d. 800 to 1450. He reconstructs this major Mississippian chiefdom and the lives of the priest-chiefs who were buried there. He also plumbs the mystery of why the people of Spiro abandoned the site, leaving behind their treasures but no forwarding address.