01/25/2026
Last fall, I joined Watchdog reporter Jack Evans in the mountains for this important story on the threat to Native American sites and artifacts on sloped areas in WNC.
From the Watchdog…Scott Ashcraft warned the U.S. Forest Service that it was imperiling Native American gravesites and artifacts in western North Carolina’s mountains. Then the archaeologist’s three-decade career with the agency fell apart. Investigative reporter Jack Evans reviewed thousands of pages of documents — including legal filings, emails, draft reports, interagency communications and personnel investigations — to shed light on the conflict.
Please read this important and well-written story with my photos and illustration.
Slide captions
Slide 1
In a 277-page document shared last month with five Native American tribes, Scott Ashcraft, retired U.S. Forest Service archaeologist for the Pisgah National Forest, accused his former employer of failing to protect sites of cultural importance and systemically keeping tribal agencies and the public in the dark.
Slide 2
Ashcraft, seated inside his home, sorts through part of his collection of artifacts
Slide 3
Ashcraft described himself as hyperfocused, intense and sometimes perfectionistic; he could be demanding of colleagues. But all those traits were in service of archaeology done the right way, he said.
Slide 4
Ashcraft shows one of several sites within a sloped area indicating a Native American burial ground.
Slide 5
Two views of rock cairns, which Ashcraft believes could mark Native American burial sites. Both sets were found on sloped land near Ashcraft’s property.
Slide 6
Ashcraft shares an arrowhead he found along the Black Mountain range near his home. He placed the arrowhead back on the ground where it was found.
Slide 7
David Dyson, a retired Forest Service archaeologist and close friend of Ashcraft, removes brush from what he and Ashcraft believe to be a Native American site located on a slope in the Old Fort Gateway Trails system.
