On June 8, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the American Antiquities Act—more formally, An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities. This law gave the president the authority to issue executive orders to restrict the use of public lands owned by the federal government, primarily for the purpose of protecting these lands from “pot hunters,” or private collectors who were looting public lands for prehistoric Native American artifacts. The immediate impetus behind the act was a study conducted by Iowa congressman John F. Lacey and the renowned anthropologist Edgar Lee Hewett, who traveled to the American Southwest to study the archaeological resources of the region and the extent of the problem caused by pot hunters. Hewett issued his report in 1904.