More Santa Fe connections have surfaced in an ongoing investigation of people suspected of illegally dealing in American Indian artifacts.

Federal agents searched the Santa Fe homes of Christopher Selser, Thomas "Tommy" Cavaliere and William "Billy" Schenck in early June. The searches were carried out at the same time agents conducted a previously reported search of the home of Forrest Fenn and arrested Steven Shrader of Santa Fe, who subsequently committed suicide.

So far, none of the men whose homes were searched in Santa Fe — a hub for the commerce in Indian antiquities — has been charged with a crime.

Shrader, whose home was not searched, was charged with trafficking in stolen artifacts, theft of government property and aiding or abetting. He later took his own life, as did James Redd, a Blanding, Utah, physician who was among two dozen people charged in early June.

Norm Cairns, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque, initially had said the only Santa Fe home searched was Fenn's. But this week, he confirmed that agents had made other searches.

"There was a miscommunication between me and the prosecutor," Cairns said in explaining his earlier statement to a reporter. "As to whose fault that is, I guess it depends on whether you're me or the prosecutor."

Cairns declined to identify the prosecutor because, he said, no charges are pending against any of the men whose homes were searched. "If you're going to write something, just blame it on me," he said.

According to a recent story in the Salt Lake City Tribune, which quotes federal court papers filed in New Mexico, Selser, Cavaliere and Schenck were drawn into the investigation by the same undercover operative who had visited Fenn's home during last year's Whitehawk Indian Art Show.

The operative was identified by other dealers, who asked not to be named, as Ted Gardiner, a Utah dealer who had become ensnared in an earlier investigation into illegal artifacts before he began to work with law enforcement. A Ted C. Gardiner, listed in Farmington, Utah, did not respond to a telephone message Thursday.

Schenck, a Santa Fe artist whose Web site advertises prehistoric pottery for sale, accompanied the undercover agent to Fenn's house, according to the affidavit upon which the search warrant was based.

Fenn, Schenck and Cavaliere have not been available for comment. But Selser, who has been dealing in Native American antiquities for 38 years, including 24 years in Santa Fe, spoke to The New Mexican this week about the search.

"I was totally surprised by what happened here," he said. "It really hurts because you think you're trying to do everything correctly and you find out that even if you think you are, the rules of the game can change and you can get into trouble."

Selser declined to say about what the agents took from his home on June 12, noting that he is the "target" of an ongoing investigation. But he said the items seized included "two things" plus various records and three computers in his home. He said he has hired Peter Shoenburg of Albuquerque to represent him — the same lawyer representing Fenn.

Like many other antiquities dealers and collectors, Selser said he believes this summer's raids were the result of new interpretations of the 1990 federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

NAGPRA originally was designed to apply to human remains held in museums and institutions that receive federal funding, but has been extended to include items considered sacred or part of a tribe's cultural patrimony that are held in private collections, Selser said. He said items acquired before 1990 originally were exempt, but federal agents now are seizing items that may have been acquired before the law went into effect.

"The burden of proof (on whether an item was acquired before 1990) used to be on the government," Selser said. "What they're doing now, they're taking things and they're basically flipping it around and making it so that we now have to prove that it's before 1990."

Selser says political pressure from American Indian groups, using gambling revenue to pay lobbyists and attorneys, have influenced the change in the interpretation of NAGPRA. But he said the federal authorities seem to be focusing on smaller dealers and ignoring violations by major auction houses.

Selser said his research has found hundreds of items for sale in major auctions over the last 20 years that are potentially subject to seizure, including a kachina mask offered at a Sotheby's auction in May. "If I had one of those things sitting in my living room when they came into my house, they may well have taken it," he said. "Yet it was allowed to go through auction and sell to a private person."

According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, Selser's home was searched after Cavaliere and the undercover agent visited Selser's east-side Santa Fe home, where Hopi kachina masks were hanging on the walls.

"The affidavit alleges that Selser, who talked about buying objects Cavaliere got from the pueblos, said he sold artifacts at a Paris trade show and that Europeans 'love this kind of material,' " the paper reported. "The court papers say Selser showed off a kachina mask he said he got from the Hopi Third Mesa — which includes Old Oraibi, the oldest inhabited village in the United States, existing since around A.D. 1050."

The story said that, "A Hopi consultant told federal authorities that all kachina masks are considered living gods and not items a tribal member would have been allowed to sell."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.