Native Made?

Let the buyer beware. . . but first, let the buyer be properly imformed!

--ryan



Native-Made

By Travis Coleman
Lawrence, KS

This Story first appeared in Reznet as a project for the Freedom Forum's American Indian Journalism.


The artist holds high the kaleidoscopic beaded star. His pride in
the unfinished piece is evident. His long, gray ponytail bobs as he
speaks, shifting seamlessly from English to Dakota, a language he
knows fluently. Outside his rural Wakonda, S.D., home, a Native
American sweat lodge sits.

But Chad Nielsen is not what you think.

“I’ve never claimed to be a Native American person,” Nielsen said.

Still, his European ancestry hasn’t prevented him from selling his
beadwork as a Native artisan.

More than 10 years ago, the 47-year-old successfully petitioned the
government to become the first non-Native certified to sell his beadwork as a Native artisan. The move put him at the center of a national debate over who has the right to label their arts
and crafts as Native-made.

That debate has its origins in the 1990 Indian Arts and Crafts Act, a law that prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of Native arts and crafts. The act has pitted the government against those who attempt to sell fake Native work as authentic.

The Council on Indigenous Arts and Cultures, a nonprofit group that promotes authentic Native arts and crafts, estimates that as much as three-fourths of all arts and crafts marketed as Native-made is sold by non-Natives.



'At a Disadvantage'

“Consumers are at a disadvantage,” said Tony Eriacho Jr., a CIAC board member. “(They are) under the illusions of Natives selling their stuff. The promotions are taking advantage of that ignorance.”

Eriacho said federal law protecting Native arts and crafts has not been enforced since it was enacted.

A 2000 Associated Press news story found that no new cases were filed against violators of the law since 1990. In the article, the Native Arts and Crafts Board said it did not have enough investigators to proactively seek out violators.

Eriacho said those who violate the law effectively shut out Native artisans from the $1 billion-a-year Native arts and crafts industry.
“We try to be honest with the customers,” said Lita Wagner, a 61-year-old Pueblo artisan who runs a Native arts and crafts shop in Albuquerque, N.M.

That is unlike her non-Native competitors, many of whom market their products as Native-made, Wagner said in a phone interview.

The debate between Native and non-Native artisans is pronounced in Old Town, a popular tourist destination in downtown Albuquerque. There, many Native artisans gather indoors and outdoors to sell their wares.

“It’s terrible,” Wagner said. “The Old Town is not really like it used to be.”

Wagner said she shows customers the difference between authentic and fake Native arts and crafts by displaying the two beside each other in her store.

Those non-Natives who market their crafts as fake are fine.



St. Louis Shop

Mike McCall is one such businessman.

He owns a store north of St. Louis that sells reproduced Native arts and crafts. He said he is clear with his customers about the origins of his products.

“The Native Americans have been taken advantage of,” said the 60-year-old in a phone interview. “These products are not Native-produced.”

McCall said even he is surprised by how far some non-Natives will go in trying to deceive consumers into believing their products are made by Natives. He cited the case of a village in the Philippines that has become a center for the production of Native arts and crafts in that country.

In an attempt to market their products as Native-made, business owners in the village succeeded in changing the town’s name to Zuni, he said. Marketing their products as “Made in Zuni,” the business owners are able to fool many consumers into believing their products are made in a Native village in southwestern United States by the same name, McCall said.

The issue of who can sell authentic Native arts and crafts is one of sovereignty, said Nielsen, the non-Native artisan in Wakonda.

He said he was able to gain the right to sell his beadwork as authentic because the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota recognized him as a tribal artisan. Nielsen said he was raised by a member of the tribe and has many adopted relatives from within the tribe.

In the end, tribes should be allowed to decide who are their artisans, he said.

“Tribes should be the ones to state their own standards.”