Tribal leaders celebrate law that bans the export of cultural tribal objects

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Tribal leaders joined congressional lawmakers on Wednesday to celebrate the recent signing of a federal law banning the export of tribal cultural objects.

The Tribal Heritage Objects Protection Act, or Stop workAnd He inspired 100 or so people, mostly from New Mexico’s Pueblo and the Navajo Nation, to gather in Albuquerque. Not only does this act give them hope that cultural items looted from their land will be returned, but that the thieves will be punished. The law also increases penalties for theft and trafficking of these items under the Native American Cemetery Protection and Repatriation Act.

Former governor Kurt Riley of the Pueblo Acoma told the group in Albuquerque about the pueblo Ceremonial shield that inspired the law.

It was stolen in the 1970s and reappeared at a Parisian auction house in 2015.

“Not only was it stolen, but it is prohibited from being traded within the United States under existing laws intended to protect the cultural heritage of the tribes,” Riley said.

Many chiefs asserted that these things were not art or property. They are sacred, and used in special ceremonies or traditions.

When Pueblo leaders contacted the auction house, they discovered that the United States had no law addressing the export of such items.

“Often, these items have been illegally removed from traditional homelands and sold at auction houses, fairs, and online locally and…