BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – Settlement talks have broken down between the government and the director of a Custer-themed Montana museum seeking the return of items seized during an artifact fraud investigation, according to court documents.
The two sides have filed legal papers asking U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen to resolve the dispute, after negotiations that began last year and had been overseen by another judge came up short.
Custer Battlefield Museum director Christopher Kortlander has said for years that the museum in Garryowen legally possessed the 22 war bonnets, medicine bundles and other items confiscated by federal agents in 2005 and 2008.
The raids came during a five-year investigation into Kortlander’s alleged dealings in fraudulent artifacts and eagle feathers in violation of federal law. Although no charges were ever filed, government attorneys have continued to question whether Kortlander and the museum acquired the items legally.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in court documents filed Friday that most of the items the government has not returned have feathers from protected eagles, making them possible contraband. Several of the items were stolen from a member of the Crow tribe, the government claims, although there’s been no allegation that Kortlander was involved in the thefts.
The government dropped its investigation into Kortlander in 2009. Most of the items seized during the raids — including 7th Cavalry memorabilia, other American Indian artifacts and thousands of pages of documents — have since been returned.
But the government’s refusal to return the remaining items has shadowed Kortlander, and he has struggled in federal court to discredit the government’s claims. Those efforts have included a lawsuit in which he unsuccessfully sought $188 million in alleged damages from the dropped investigation.
Kortlander’s attorneys said the items rightfully belong to the museum, and that the dispute has lingered even though “each alternative explanation offered by the United States for its continued possession of the Items has been thoroughly refuted.”
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Victoria Francis asked Christensen to reject Kortlander’s attempt to reclaim the items. She wrote that he has not followed up on prior promises to provide documents proving his ownership and has offered “confusing and contradictory statements” about where he got the items.
Christensen has ordered that reply briefs be filed in the case by mid-August.
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