House, Senate Pass Resolution To Stop Artifact Trafficking
The House and Senate have passed a resolution to help stop the trafficking of sacred Native American artifacts.
For several years art dealers have purchased sacred artifacts and had exported them overseas, where often French auction houses have sold them off to the highest bidder.
They are protected in the United States and cannot be sold here, but several sales have occurred in France in the last decade.
For the Hopi these ceremonial artifacts are their ancestors, living beings who belong home on Hopi land.
The resolution would condemn the theft or sale of the cultural items and would call on several federal agencies to work with the tribes to stop the trafficking and to help repatriate the artifacts.
It also would call on the Comptroller General of the U.S. to study the scope of the problem and what needs to be done to stop it.
