The damaged Fred Kabotie Hopi headdress (Photo: National Park Service).
Damage to Hopi Headdress Underscores Precarious State of Many Native Artifacts
Sites in danger in Arizona, and across the West
By Michael Washburn, August 24, 2026 10:08 am
The damaging of a priceless Hopi artifact at the Desert View Watchtower in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park earlier this summer has refocused attention on the vulnerability of such relics and the limited legal power of indigenous tribes to take action to protect them. According to the National Park Service, on June 17, a tourist climbed onto a chair with the idea of taking a picture, but quickly lost his balance.
In his efforts to steady himself, the tourist caused an elaborate Hopi headpiece to fall. It suffered breaks in two places and damage in three others. The tourist received first aid on the scene and then reportedly fled with a younger woman. As of this writing, park rangers are still collecting tips and looking for him.
The designer of the headpiece was none other than Fred Kabotie (1900-1986), a celebrated Hopi craftsman, illustrator, mural painter, poet, draughtsman, and tour guide. During his heyday in the 1920s, Kabotie’s work appeared in an exhibit in New York City. Today, you can check out works by and featuring Kabotie in the British Museum.
Not since 2013, when Paris auction houses ignored the objections of the U.S. embassy and actor Robert Redford and sold off extremely rare Hopi masks made of animal skins, has the status of Hopi artifacts in the contemporary world drawn such coverage. But the damage to Kabotie’s headpiece is not the only bad news in recent weeks for those concerned with the preservation of indigenous artifacts and culture in Arizona and beyond.
In May, machinery used in the construction of President Trump’s border wall to keep out illegal migrants reportedly razed a portion of the 272-foot Las Playas Intaglio, an etching in the shape of a fish, in Arizona’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The damage reportedly outraged members of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Then, in June, the Bureau of Land launched an investigation of damage to six Native American rock art sites in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin. Vandals had defaced and even fired guns at the sites, according to a local news report.
The June incident at Grand Canyon National Park may inspire calls for park rangers and police to be more vigilant about protecting native artifacts, relics, and sites and cracking down on those who, through carelessness or malice, damage or destroy them. That may seem all well and good to some people. But, in the view of E. Charles Adams, curator emeritus of the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona, it may be a distraction from a more serious issue: the legal sleight-of-hand by which the most egregious theft and vandalism of native artifacts and remains occur. According to Adams, the problem here is not really laxity on the part of the state, and, given Arizona’s particular sociopolitical dynamics, it is far from clear that cracking down on visitors to sacred sites will get to the root of the issue.
Theft and vandalism of native artifacts, of course, are not new issues, Adams noted. “The state does the best it can given its limited resources, both financial and personnel,” Adams told Arizona Globe. “In the past, it partnered with federal officials, such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI, to interrupt theft rings that buy and sell indigenous objects taken illegally from tribal, state, and federal land. There are high standards to meet to get a conviction,” he continued.
The sad irony is that what appear to be decreases in vandalism and theft may actually be the result of land transfers taking place behind a veneer of legality. Artifacts of tremendous cultural importance to the Hopi and other people often lie on state lands, and when a private party snatches those lands up, technically no theft has occurred. “Vandalism and theft on state land have been reduced during the past 25 years because private land can be leased or purchased in order to vandalize archaeological sites, and it is not illegal unless human remains are encountered,” Adams noted.
Even when such remains are present on a given site, “it is rare that such encounters are reported, especially by the culprit,” he added. “This is why convictions are so difficult – because the pothunter can simply claim the objects came from private land and not from burials when they were on state property.”
Obviously, it is can be quite hard for those concerned with protecting native artifacts and remains to counter this sleight-of-hand, though means do exist, Adams explained. “Generally, an eyewitness is needed,” he noted.
A greater investment of resources could make a difference here, Adams acknowledged. “Drones would clearly be useful in discouraging vandalism on remote lands, but I don’t know if this technology is being used,” he said. “Theft of objects on reservations is handled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and it can take decades to catch and convict the perpetrator,” he continued. “In the late 20th century, it was a huge issue.”
If there is hope for effective action at the political level, it lies largely with the state legislatures of the Four Corners states, Adams believes. Certain of the states’ representatives in Washington have also paid attention to the issue. “The federal delegation in New Mexico is very involved in supporting the concerns of tribal groups,” he noted, alluding to recent battles between President Trump and local tribes over oil and gas drilling at New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
Whatever your views on who is right or wrong in one of many of Trump’s imbroglios, honoring the legacy of Fred Kabotie and other artists who lived and worked in eras markedly different from the present – and preserving their achievements–requires grasping the nuances of a highly complex and politically fraught issue.
