Vere (history, U. of North Carolina, Wilmington) recounts the looting of the Spiro Mounds in eastern Oklahoma in 1935, which contained a large amount of pre-Columbian art. He describes the founding and settlement of the area from 800 A.D., the culture and life of the people, and the decline of the chiefdom by 1450 A.D. These chapters are interwoven with the story of how the Pocola Mining Company found the Mounds in the 1930s and looted the objects, the fight with them by U. of Oklahoma's anthropologist Forrest Clements over who had property rights, Works Progress Administration excavation, and past and present theories about Spiro and its people. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)