The two women and four children will have the proper burial they deserve.

The Native Americans had one, 4,000 years ago, when members of their tribe tucked their bodies in a shallow cave at the bottom of a cliff in what is now Jackson County. They remained there undisturbed until Nov. 26, 2012, when three men raided their graves and sold their remains to an amateur collector.

Now that the last of those men was sentenced Wednesday in federal court, the Jackson County sheriff's office will release the remains to the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma for reburial, said Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Michael Marous.

U.S. District Judge George C. Smith sentenced Toby Lee Thacker, 47, of Wellston to 30 days in jail, followed by one year of probation.

Thacker and two others trespassed on private property and excavated the burial site, exhuming the remains and other artifacts.

Brian K. Skeens, 39, was sentenced last week to 90 days in jail and a year of probation. His brother, David E. Skeens, 40, was sentenced in July to 30 days in jail and a year of probation. The Skeens also were from Wellston.

All three men had pleaded guilty to trafficking in Native American remains, a misdemeanor.

They sold the remains and artifacts to Mark M. Beatty, 57, of Wellston for $4,500. Beatty pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced in August to three years of probation, including three months of home confinement. He also was ordered to pay a $3,500 fine.

Beatty has agreed to pay for a newspaper ad discouraging others from illegally excavating Native American remains.

The theft was discovered when someone saw the men digging in the rock shelter off Sour Run Road. The witness chased them off and notified the sheriff's office. Deputies found a hole big enough to fit a small car.

Marous said the sheriff's office, which has been holding the remains as evidence, eventually will release them to the Miami Tribe, which will bury them at an undisclosed location in Ohio.

All four men also were ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution toward the reburial. Smith allowed Thacker to pay $5 a month toward his restitution until he finds employment.

The names of the women and children and that of their community, and how they died, have been lost to time. An anthropologist confirmed that the remains were consistent with a Native American practice of "cradle boarding," in which infants were wrapped tightly in a small blanket and strapped to a wooden plank.

The case was one of only two, prosecutors found, that have been charged nationwide under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1988.

Trespassing laws protect national and state tribal sites and those on private property, unless the treasure hunters have the landowner's permission.

erinehart@dispatch.com

@esrinehart