Hello to the list:)

I apologize for cross-postings.

Recently, I have gone head to head with Federal and State reps over the use
of a pan scraper and track hoe to remove thin plowzone over a
previously-recorded Native American site and cemetery during a Section 106
mitigation and data recovery at a National Historic Landmark.  The site is
not exactly flat, is located on the crest of a Holocene terrace, and burials
and stratified midden occurred on the site at about twenty centimeters below
the surface. During the course of that plow zone removal, a documented
burial located at the top of the deposit was scraped away and reputedly, the
cranial remains of a second documented burial located a few meters away at
the base of the deposit were also scraped away by the pan scraper. Despite
my formal complaint through the proper channels, and whistleblower or
anti-SLAPP legislation existing at the state and federal level, the
contractor performing the data recovery has gone so far as to formally
threaten me with a defamation suit.

Has anyone on the list had any similar experience?  I am looking for
references to similar projects where the use of pan scrapers and track hoes
as a viable data recovery method was both successfully and unsuccessfully
challenged.

Thanking all in advance for time and kind considerations.

Dan Sumner Allen IV
DuVall & Associates
Middle Tennessee State University