Thursday, June 8, 2017 — Auction house ignores pleas to stop damaging sale

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (27.0MB) | Embed

The Hopi Tribe and others find themselves in the position—again—of trying to stop a damaging sale of items by a French auction house. The EVE auction house is holding its sixth auction of Native American objects later this month, selling items from several tribes. Many of the items are considered sacred. A bill to curb some sales died in Congress. Sponsors of the STOP Act (Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony) say they plan to bring it back, but it still lacks power to stop international sales like the upcoming auction.

Guests:

Leigh Kuwanwisiwma (Hopi) – director for the Hopi cultural preservation office

Aaron Sims (Acoma Pueblo) – attorney from the Chestnut Law Office and the Acoma Pueblo’s general legal council

Vanessa Elmore – Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association (ATADA) representative of the legal committee and art appraiser who specializes in American Indian art

Break music: We Are (song) DiggingRoots (artist) We Are (album)

Bob GALLEGOS says

June 10, 2017 at 12:17 am

You have two different world views that have opposing truths. The native view states that all important religious items should not have left their communities
And are considered stolen.

The non native view is that items were collected legally under existing US law often from tribal members.

Both these statements are true. The reality is that our government caused thousands of items to leave the native communities as a result of forced assimilation
policies, relocation of entire tribes and the use of termination acts to steal millions of acres of land from these native communities .. Is there any surprise that so many sacred items left these communities?

This combined with the fact that most of these communities do not have
a written cultural preservation policy instructing their own tribal
Members of the importance
Of these items. This has lead to the selling of such items by their own members.

Since religious information is priveledge and only those that are trained to receive such information are allowed to know, there is no
Easy way for non natives to know what items are considered most important
and should not by bought or sold.

Education is the key to the solution of this problem. Once awareness is created,
Non natives will do the right thing regardless of the legal status.

The bright side is as contemporary communities we can work together to make sure that in the future
all peoples have the right to self determination and that all communities will determine what is inalienable to them.

The challenge is how do we
Deal with objects that were collected legally in the past under US law but considered stolen from a native perspective ?

The government must bear the largest part of the responsibility for this situation but they choose to
Place 95 percent of the burden on the market.

ATADA’s voluntary return
program is a viable solution to the items collected in the past. With more educational
Seminars, the awareness of the importance that certain items have for native communities will increase
And many more items will return.

Interaction between our communities base on trust
And treating each other as human beings will be far more effective that the STOP
act which is based on increased penalties and restrictions. It would not be so bad but the lack of a definition Of what makes an item sacred makes this proposed law unworkable for many reasons. If a law is to be enacted, it needs to work for the native communities. The reason this law will not work is another Long discussion.

However, it is encouraging that these two communities are reaching out to each other which is a first in modern day collecting and a
The past will not repeat itself.

Comments

Vanessa Elmore says

June 9, 2017 at 10:03 am

Thank you, Native America Calling & Tara Gatewood, for inviting and including ATADA in this conversation–we are proud to have participated in this with you and we are especially appreciative that this topic was covered by your program! We hope to continue to engage with all of you on these issues and other topics related to the greater American Indian Art Market. We salute and support you and all of your efforts put forth through this influential show–keep it up!
Bob GALLEGOS says

June 10, 2017 at 12:17 am

You have two different world views that have opposing truths. The native view states that all important religious items should not have left their communities
And are considered stolen.

The non native view is that items were collected legally under existing US law often from tribal members.

Both these statements are true. The reality is that our government caused thousands of items to leave the native communities as a result of forced assimilation
policies, relocation of entire tribes and the use of termination acts to steal millions of acres of land from these native communities .. Is there any surprise that so many sacred items left these communities?

This combined with the fact that most of these communities do not have
a written cultural preservation policy instructing their own tribal
Members of the importance
Of these items. This has lead to the selling of such items by their own members.

Since religious information is priveledge and only those that are trained to receive such information are allowed to know, there is no
Easy way for non natives to know what items are considered most important
and should not by bought or sold.

Education is the key to the solution of this problem. Once awareness is created,
Non natives will do the right thing regardless of the legal status.

The bright side is as contemporary communities we can work together to make sure that in the future
all peoples have the right to self determination and that all communities will determine what is inalienable to them.

The challenge is how do we
Deal with objects that were collected legally in the past under US law but considered stolen from a native perspective ?

The government must bear the largest part of the responsibility for this situation but they choose to
Place 95 percent of the burden on the market.

ATADA’s voluntary return
program is a viable solution to the items collected in the past. With more educational
Seminars, the awareness of the importance that certain items have for native communities will increase
And many more items will return.

Interaction between our communities base on trust
And treating each other as human beings will be far more effective that the STOP
act which is based on increased penalties and restrictions. It would not be so bad but the lack of a definition Of what makes an item sacred makes this proposed law unworkable for many reasons. If a law is to be enacted, it needs to work for the native communities. The reason this law will not work is another Long discussion.

However, it is encouraging that these two communities are reaching out to each other which is a first in modern day collecting and a
The past will not repeat itself.