One glaring example of blatantly ignoring significant “cultural history” recently came from big coal. After several years of meticulous excavation, perhaps one of the most important archaeological finds in the last 50 years that detailed the religious beliefs of indigenous peoples 2,000 years ago was destroyed. A coal company operating on the Crow Reservation took a backhoe to it so strip-mining operations in the immediate vicinity could resume more quickly. The kicker is this was done with permission by the Crow Tribe's very own Tribal Historic Preservation Office, an office created to prevent such abuses against historically significant landmarks. The head of the THPO at the time, Dale Old Horn, gave permission to the coal company to take a backhoe to the sacred site in July 2011. He was fired by the tribal administration later that year for his preeminent role in a corruption scheme that totaled some $500,000, ultimately leading to a federal conviction last August.

What would compel people to do such things that would desecrate a sacred bison site? A shocked anthropologist, Judson Finley from Utah State University, who witnessed the aftermath and destruction of the historical site, said, “We’re talking about coal, and the whole area has coal underneath it. You make the connection.”

Rather than being admonished for causing the destruction of a sacred bison site, two family members of Old Horn involved in the $500,000 scheme were actually rehired at the Crown Nation’s Cultural Affairs Office. Awaiting sentencing, Old Horn was given preference and worked for the tribe's new administration as “part of a group making recommendations on how to preserve the Crow culture and way of life,” according to the Billings Gazette. It must be noted that Old Horn is the current Crow tribal chairman's uncle.