Federal penalties have increased under a newly signed law intended to protect the cultural patrimony of Native American tribes, immediately making some crimes a felony and doubling the prison time for anyone convicted of multiple offenses.
quietly bought nearly two dozen ceremonial items at an auction in Paris and later returned them to the Hopi, the San Carlos Apache and the White Mountain Apache tribes in Arizona. The tribes said the items invoke the spirit of their ancestors and were taken in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
“We should always look at the laws we pass as not static but as living laws, so we are able to determine improvements that can be made,” she said. Leigh Kuwanwisiwma, the former cultural preservation director for the Hopi Tribe, said the enhanced penalties are helpful. But he wants to see countries embrace a principle of mutual respect and deference to the laws of sovereign Native American nations when it comes to what’s rightfully theirs. For Hopi, he said, the items are held by the community and no one person has a right to sell or give them away.
The items can be hard to track but often surface in underground markets, in museums, shows, and auction house catalogs, Vallo said. He said Finland, Germany and the U.K. shared intentions recently to work with U.S. tribes to understand what’s in their collections and talk about ways to return items of great cultural significance.“I think if we can make some progress, even with these three countries, it sends a strong message that there is a way to go about this work, there is a mutual reward at the end,” he said. “And it’s the most responsible thing to be engaged in.
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