Floods caused problems with gravesites along the Cumberland river and looters are digging them up!!

Archaeologists, Native Americans and the residents of Bells Bend are outraged by looters they say are digging up burial sites along the Cumberland River bank, then selling the artifacts for money.

It's a problem that's been going on for decades, said Mike Moore, state archaeologist and director of the Tennessee Division of Archaeology. But the May floods caused an uptick in the number of lootings, scientists say.

"The flood caused a tremendous amount of erosion, so more of the stone box (gravesites) interred there are now visible," said Tom Pertierra, chief executive officer of Southeastern Paleoamerican Survey Inc., a nonprofit company that supports public archaeology. "The looters can see it, and they're taking advantage of it by coming in at night and systematically digging away at it."

Pertierra spent about a month working on the 808 acres of Bells Bend Park with other volunteers.