Indian Arts Community Takes On Problem of Impostor Goods

Bob Lawson keeps a vial of acid behind the counter at Navajo Trading Co. When an unknown artist wants to sell him jewelry, he splashes a drop on each piece to determine if it’s sterling silver or nickel.

Next door, the owners of Richardson’s Trading Co., after 86 years in business, have begun purchasing fake Navajo rugs to show customers who want to be sure what they’re buying is authentic. Their own weavers are now instructed to tag their creations with photographs and biographies.

Other craftspeople, such as Zuni Indian silversmiths Jan and Wilda Boone, are branding their pieces with initials and symbols--anything to prove that their work is indeed their own.

In the town renowned as the retail center for authentic Indian arts and crafts, shopkeepers and artisans are going to battle against a growing threat: the importation and sale of impostor products.

It is a foe as old as the Indian arts trade itself, but one that many who work in the industry have only begun to take on, driven by the government’s failure to enforce laws meant to protect their products and livelihoods.

“It has gone unaddressed for so long that it is taking a very strong hold on our ability to put out authentic handmade products,” says Andy Abeita, a sculptor in New Mexico’s Isleta Pueblo who has become a leader in the fight against the misrepresentation of Indian-style wares.

“We’re talking about artists who may not have the opportunity to teach their children the trade that their fathers taught them and, possibly, their fathers before them.”

They are artists such as the Boones, who make earrings and bracelets in a makeshift workshop at their home in the Zuni Pueblo, south of Gallup. Jan’s parents were silversmiths, as were his grandparents before. Wilda’s made animal carvings, as the couple’s 22-year-old daughter does now.

Although their trade has been passed down from generation to generation, the Boones would prefer that their two youngest children find another way to make a living. The imitations have changed their business forever, they say, causing buyers to be more wary of their own creations.

“It’s hard to go into a store and try to sell something that you’ve worked so hard on and they’re like, ‘Uh huh.’ It breaks your heart,” says Jan Boone, who is studying construction and plans to get out of the jewelry trade.

The imitations, he says, are “cutting right down into our way of life, let alone our way to make a living, and taking food out of our kids’ mouths.”

Gallup, a borough of 20,000 people between the Navajo and Zuni reservations in western New Mexico, was a product of the Indian arts industry. Trading post entrepreneurs were among the first settlers here in the late 1800s, and quickly found fortune purchasing Indian-made goods as pawn. Items ranged from guns, saddles and buckskins to turquoise jewelry, blankets and carvings.

Even in those days glass beads made to look like turquoise were being produced in Czechoslovakia and Japan, says Martin Link, publisher of the Indian Trader, a monthly industry newspaper in Gallup. But back then, says Link, “the look-alikes and the fakes were obviously look-alikes and fakes.”

As the popularity of Indian-made jewelry grew in the 1970s and ‘80s, the copies became more sophisticated and retailers less candid about whether their wares were indeed authentic. Soon imitation Navajo rugs, Hopi Kachina dolls and other crafts were being sold as handmade Indian products.

Today up to half of the Indian-style arts and crafts sold in the United States--an industry that generates $1 billion annually--may not be authentic, according to the Albuquerque-based Indian Arts and Crafts Assn.

In Gallup, where more than 100 trading posts and galleries still line a two-block stretch of downtown, some 80% of the jewelry pieces sold are thought to be cast reproductions rather than authentic handmade, Abeita says.

Fed up with the influx of impostors, American Indians persuaded Congress in 1990 to rewrite a decades-old law to stiffen penalties against those who misrepresent a product as Indian-made.

Complaints are reviewed by the Interior Department’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board, which can then forward cases to the Justice Department for prosecution. Violators face a fine of up to $250,000 and a possible five-year prison term, while businesses can be fined up to $1 million.

Since the law took effect in November 1996, no cases have been referred for prosecution.

Acting IACB director Meridith Stanton says several cases are pending referral, and blames the failure to prosecute on a lack of viable complaints from artists and retailers. The board has received 46 complaints, including 20 in writing, over the last three years. Only written complaints are investigated.

“People are quick to complain about their neighbor down the block, but to actually sit down and formally accuse them of breaking the law, that takes a commitment,” Stanton says.

Ten states, including New Mexico, have statutes similar to the federal law, although prosecutions in state courts also are rare, says Abeita, who in 1998 worked as a consultant to the New Mexico attorney general’s office, coordinating investigations of impostor goods.

His work culminated in six civil lawsuits last year against businesses in Gallup, Santa Fe and Taos. Four cases resulted in fines ranging from $5,000 to $25,000, and one business, a repeat offender, was shut down for two years. The other two cases are pending.

Prior to those, however, cases against unscrupulous retailers were rare, admits Bennett Cohn, head of litigation for the New Mexico AG’s office, which periodically performs “buys” at some of the more than 500 Indian arts and crafts dealers in the state and tests the products to ensure they are authentic.

Abeita admits artists and retailers are hesitant to turn in their own because of fears that the bad publicity will negatively affect the entire industry. However, he also insists that authorities are ignorant about laws designed to protect Indian goods and, therefore, are lax on enforcement.

Over the last few years, Abeita has traveled to U.S. Customs ports in New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska and California to teach inspectors how to spot Indian-style products, which must be indelibly marked with the country of origin in order to be legally imported. Items not marked can be confiscated.

“The problem is that once a product has been identified and an exporter has been made aware, they simply port-shop somewhere else,” Abeita says.

With such efforts failing to stop the flow of impostor goods, the front line in the battle has shifted to the communities and people whose existence depends on success.

In Gallup, stores such as Richardson’s post signs warning customers to beware of imitations. In the Zuni Pueblo, an art museum prominently displays plastic stones and imitation jewelry made in “Zuni, Philippines.”

Abeita is working with the Zuni, Navajo and Hopi tribes to patent their own trademarks, but the work is slow-going. He and others admit the best weapon in this fight is an educated consumer.

“This is the livelihood of Gallup,” says Link, of the Indian Trader. “If the laws aren’t eventually enforced and the situation somehow controlled, the impact will be nothing but adverse.

“When it gets to the point that the last store sells the last piece of Indian-made jewelry, I think our whole culture, not just the Indian culture, will be the worse for it.”

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Tips for Authenticity

Tips for buying Indian-made products:

Jewelry

If jewelry is made of silver, it should be marked “sterling.” Jewelry should exhibit natural metals and stones. Metals should be solid instead of plated or filled. Edges should be smooth and even instead of crudely or sharply cut. All stones should be natural, not cake, composite or resin-treated materials.

Pottery

Pottery design should display proportion and balance. Pottery should be made from natural rather than commercial clay. It should be handmade, not made of commercially molded greenware. Paints also should be natural, and pottery should be fired in a traditional outdoor manner or in a kiln. The painted design should be well executed, and polished surfaces should be smooth and even.

Rugs and Blankets

Weaving should reflect quality, balance and design. Weavings should be made from homespun or commercial yarns of natural fibers such as cotton and wool. Colors should derive from native plant dyes instead of commercial dyes. Collecting native dyes and spinning yarn is far more labor intensive and, therefore, may cause the weaving to be more expensive. A good-quality Navajo rug should lie flat with even edges and have the same thickness throughout.

Baskets

Baskets should be woven with natural materials. The key to identifying quality Indian baskets is discovering the materials and process used to make them. Indian basketry varies from coarse construction and minimal design to extremely fine weaving with intricate design. Some baskets are utilitarian, while others are made for ceremonial purposes. Handmade baskets that are delicately woven with all natural materials gathered by the craftsperson generally will be more expensive due to the labor involved.

General

Whatever the item, consumers should take the time to inform themselves and ask questions. They should be aware, however, that Native American craftspeople may not divulge certain information related to the process or material sources of some items, especially pottery. It is a matter of respect that certain information must remain a secret to be shared only among those who practice the art.

Suspected violations of Indian arts and crafts laws may be forwarded to your local state attorney general’s office or in writing to the Indian Arts and Crafts Board at:

U.S. Interior Department

MS-4004-MIB

1849 C St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20240