Leaving the Native Art Trade to Native Artists, Not Factories

Given a porcupine, some food coloring and 45 minutes, Valerie Brown Eyes' impossibly deft fingers can create a masterpiece. She is one of the many professional artists specializing in quillwork on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The bracelet pictured above was crafted using the wrapping method — with just a thin strip of rawhide and a Tupperware container filled with brightly dyed porcupine quills, Valerie wraps and weaves each two-inch quill around and around. No glue, no staples, no shortcuts. She has been perfecting this ancient art for a lifetime, and still says she's "far from done" with her artistic journey.

She's not the only one. Around here, Kevin Poor Bear is known for his charcoal drawings and the occasional piece of beadwork. Award-winning musician Will Peters carves and paints turtles from wood, selling them alongside the stone turtle necklaces created by his wife Lena. And Joe Pulliam, whose intricate watercolor depictions of Lakota life and tradition are often featured in world-class exhibitions, routinely sells paintings and prints around town.

The native art trade is an economically viable way to carry on the vibrant artistic traditions of indigenous populations — that is, when vendors are protected from fraudulent, factory-made items being passed of as native art, a practice that is estimated to drain the market of 80 percent of its value.

Commenting on this trend of illegally-marketed arts and crafts, Chad Henderson of the Old Town Merchants Association reasons, "When you consider that out of that billion dollar industry, $750 million is going toward fakes, it's enormous. Just imagine what $750 million would do for the indigenous populations."

A newly-passed amendment to the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, some benefits of which were extolled by Women's Rights blogger Brittany Shoot yesterday, provides further protection to Native American artists like Valerie from fraudulent "Indian" arts and crafts on the market.

The legislation, an extension of H.R. 725, specifically grants authority to any federal law enforcement official to investigate possible cases of fraudulent Indian art selling. Previously, only the F.B.I. held this power.

In communities where self-employment via individual artisanship is often the only source of income available to tribal members seeking to support their family or fund their education, this Walmart-esque trend of selling cheaply made replications alongside legitimate art is nothing short of market exploitation. Congress, a historic enemy of indigenous rights , has remarkably begun to inch forward in this long road we like to call "democratic progress."

Photo credit: Ashley Eberhart (bracelet by Valerie Brown Eyes)