skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Proposed Law Increases Penalties for Trafficking Native Artifacts

play audio
Play

Thursday, July 7, 2016   

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Outrage over recent attempts to auction Native American artifacts in Europe has spurred the introduction of legislation in the U.S. Senate aimed at halting the theft and sale of sacred items.

Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico introduced the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony, or STOP, Act, which prohibits the export of Native American objects and increases penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking tribal cultural artifacts.

Heinrich says the measure will close a significant loophole in current federal law.

"The French authorities said, 'You don't have a prohibition in your law against the export of these items,’” Heinrich relates. “’How can we engage our auction houses to say that you need to return these when you don't even have a law on the books that says they can't leave the country in the first place?’”

In May, stolen artifacts and ceremonial items from the Pueblo of Acoma, Hopi and other tribes were put up for sale at a Paris auction house.

Following protests and negotiations, which included the U.S. State Department, the items were pulled from the auction, but the episode pointed up the need for tougher laws.

Kurt Riley, the governor of the Pueblo of Acoma, says the law gives both federal officials and tribes better tools to investigate and stop the trafficking.

"We are hoping that it will begin to close the doors on the sales of these items in Europe,” he states. “It's very difficult once it leaves the pueblo to do anything because we don't have, oftentimes, the internal wherewithal as far as policing and investigation."

First Delegate LoRenzo Bates with the Navajo Nation says without tougher laws, artifacts will continue to be taken and sold.

"As such, we did it once thinking that maybe it would end at that time,” he says. “It happened again and again. The nation took action to bring them back to our homeland."

Heinrich says the bill identifies artifacts banned from export, increases maximum penalties from 5 to 10 years, and establishes a two-year amnesty for individuals who voluntarily return illegally possessed cultural objects.





get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021