Indian Arts And Crafts Misrepresentation

Author : Committee on Committee on Indian Affairs United States Senate
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781985160200
Total Pages : 86 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (62 download)

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Download or read book Cultural Sovereignty Series written by Committee on Committee on Indian Affairs United States Senate and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-15 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In response to growing sales of counterfeit Indian products in the billion-dollar Indian art market, Congress passed the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990. The Act is a truth-in-advertising law that authorized the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to refer complaints of counterfeit Indian Goods to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It provides criminal and civil penalties for marketing products as "Indian made" when such products are not made by Indians, as defined by the Act. In 2011, a Government Accountability Act report found that "The sale of goods falsely represented as authentic Indian-produced arts and crafts has been a persistent and potentially growing problem in the United States." It continued that "Misrepresentation by sale of unauthentic products created by non-Indians, including imports from foreign countries, is a matter of great concern to Indian artists, who have to reduce their prices or lose sales because of competition from lower priced imitation products." While complaints and violations have often occurred primarily in the Southwest, particularly in New Mexico, due to the Indian art industry's concentration in this region, the scope of the problem is nationwide. Since 1996, the Board has received over 1,700 complaints of alleged Act violations, of which 1,295 have been closed and 413 remain open investigations. Many of these were handled administratively, through letters informing businesses and individuals about the Act and Act compliance. Others were referred for investigation to federal, and at times State, law enforcement authorities, depending on the nature of the complaint and jurisdiction. To date, there have been 22 federal prosecutions in New Mexico, Alaska, Utah, South Dakota, and Missouri.