Joe Roberts wrote:

 > Where is the call for cooperation and mutual education between
 > archaeologists and relic hunters? From what I have seen, relic
 > hunters will respond to archaeologists if they are met on the
 > common ground of interest in history.

The Texas Historical Commission's volunteer Archaeological Stewards 
Program has as one of its key activitiies the cataloging of private 
collections. The purpose of the program is multifold: to record what 
already exists in private hands, to educate collectors -- usually 
private land owners who have no legal restrictions whatever on what they 
do with archaeological sites on their property -- on the value and 
importance of archaeological sites to our shared heritage, to encourage 
collectors to keep their collections intact with whatever documentation 
they might happen to have, and (hopefully) to discourage them from 
further relic-hunting. The THC also formally recognizes private land 
owners who encourage and support formal archaeological studies on their 
property. In a state where property rights trump virtually everything 
else, it's an important recognition that the majority of terrestrial 
archaeological sites are located on lands where there is no other 
practical way to protect them.

-------------> AH