Beware | The
Law | Limitations of Law
Fraudulence in
Native American Art
Collectors across the United
States express appreciation of the Native American Arts by purchasing
pieces for decoration and display. Yet companies producing inexpensive
duplicates of this wonderfully unique American expression are
violating the sanctity of thousands of years of tradition.
The foreign manufacturers
that produce these knock offs care not for ancestry, but for marketability.
The overseas factory worker who runs his paintbrush across a piece
of pottery isn’t expressing his tribal tradition and technique,
but merely doing a job.
A survey conducted in 1985
estimated that the sale of Native American arts and crafts generated
sales in the range of $800 million per year. Today, those estimates
are well over $1 billion per year and rising.
Despite the continued popularity
of Native American arts and crafts, the unemployment rate at leading
Southwestern arts tribes has risen.
Zuni, Navajo and Hopi style
arts, crafts and jewelry account for an estimated 90% of the market.
Instead of artisans from
these tribal nations enjoying the monetary benefits from the popularity
of their work, unemployment among these tribes has risen over
the past two decades to seventy percent.
Unable to support themselves
though their craft, many chose to abandon their craft and seek
other means of employment.
Jewelers at the Santo Domingo
Pueblo in New Mexico, once famous for their stunningly crafted
Heishi beads, have all but stopped producing this traditional
jewelry.
Counterfeits produced in
cheap-labor countries such as Mexico, Pakistan, India, Thailand
and the Philippines produce and distribute much of the market
share of what fraudulently claims to be authentic, handmade Native
American Art.
These infringements on
American history are imported and brought to market. They are
misrepresented as authentic and purchased by Americans, appreciative
of the beauty and spirituality of what they believe to be traditional
tribal pieces, unknowingly rewarding the plagiarism of Native
American Art with their dollars.
As if this fraudulence
were not enough, the low overhead incurred at these manufacturing
facilities, along with the influx of inexpensive and imitation
materials, has driven down market prices for genuine Native American
Art, further injuring the authentic tribal artisan.
Yet, the infringement upon
the Native American artist goes beyond the end game of a competitive
marketplace.
If the incentive for income
is lost, then the undertaking becomes a hobby. At this level,
the tradition of sharing the teachings of the elders to future
generations will diminish, and with it, a culture will become
as extinct.
Alongside ignorance stands
silence, for artisans who are able to continue to support themselves
through the sale of their crafts are afraid to rock the boat,
fearful of diminishing consumer confidence and permanently damaging
the market.
Ignorance is intolerable.
Silence is unacceptable.
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