Cherokee Nation Truth in Advertising for Native Art | |
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Council of the Cherokee Nation | |
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Citation | Legislative Act 01-08 |
Territorial extent | Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Nation entities |
Enacted by | Council of the Cherokee Nation |
Enacted | January 21, 2008 |
Legislative history | |
Introduced by | Cara Cowan Watts |
Introduced | November 29, 2007 |
Status: In force |
The Cherokee Nation Truth in Advertising for Native Art is a legislative act unanimously passed by the Council of the Cherokee Nation on January 14, 2008, and signed into law a week later on January 21, 2008. [1] A truth-in-advertising law, the act requires vendors who market themselves as American Indians on Cherokee Nation property to provide proof of citizenship in a federally recognized American Indian tribe or face expulsion. [2]
The act is stricter than the criteria set by the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, which stipulates that Native American artisans must be members of a federally recognized tribes, certain state-recognized tribe, or tribally designated artisans. [3] [4] The law follows the State of Oklahoma's American Indian Arts and Crafts Sales Act of 1974, which states: "'American Indian' means a person who is a citizen or is an enrolled member of an American Indian tribe" and "'American Indian tribe' means any Indian tribe federally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior." [5]
The Cherokee Nation's act requires membership in a federally recognized tribe. According to Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr., the Indian Arts and Crafts Act fails to adequately protect Native American artisans, stating that "Unfortunately, the Indian Arts and Crafts Act — a law intended to protect Native artists — helps these “tribes” in their quest for legitimacy. Under the law, artists with membership in these fraudulent organizations compete alongside Cherokee citizens in selling art under the federally protected “Indian art” label." [6]
The Cherokee Nation is one of four federally recognized American Indian tribes to reference the Indian Arts and Crafts Act in their law codes. The Cherokee Nation's truth-in-advertising law is complemented by its Arts and Crafts Copyright Act. [7]
In September, 2008, the editors of Indianz.com stated that the Cherokee Nation's "Truth in Advertising for Native Art Act was necessary to protect artists who are Cherokee citizens from the proliferation of fraudulent Cherokee groups and individuals proclaiming themselves Cherokee to profit off the growing “Indian art” market." The statement was a response to letters to the editor claiming that the act was part of "personal attacks" against individuals who self-identify as Cherokee. [8]
The First American Art Magazine has stated the magazine "complies with the 2008 Cherokee Nation Truth in Advertising for Native Art Act (#07-160) and is explicit in revealing if individuals are enrolled in the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes or if they are unenrolled individuals of Cherokee descent." The magazine further states that "No living person should be listed simply as Cherokee, but instead, their affiliation or lack of affiliation should be spelled out." [9]
Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of Indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.
Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to establish legally defined racial population groups. By contrast, many tribes do not include blood quantum as part of their own enrollment criteria. Blood quantum laws were first imposed by white settlers in the 18th century. Blood Quantum (BQ) is a very controversial topic.
The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. According to the UKB website, its members are mostly descendants of "Old Settlers" or "Western Cherokees," those Cherokees who migrated from the Southeast to present-day Arkansas and Oklahoma around 1817. Some reports estimate that Old Settlers began migrating west by 1800, before the forced relocation of Cherokees by the United States in the late 1830s under the Indian Removal Act.
State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established under assorted state government laws for varying purposes or by governor's executive orders. State recognition does not dictate whether or not they are recognized as Native American tribes by continually existing tribal nations.
The Cherokee Freedmen controversy was a political and tribal dispute between the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen regarding the issue of tribal membership. The controversy had resulted in several legal proceedings between the two parties from the late 20th century to August 2017.
Cherokee heritage groups are associations, societies and other organizations located primarily in the United States. Such groups consist of persons who do not qualify for enrollment in any of the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes. As the Cherokee Nation enrolls all people who can prove descent from a Cherokee ancestor, many of these groups consist of those who claim Cherokee ancestry but have no documentation to prove this alleged heritage. Some have had their claims of ancestry checked and proven to be false. A total of 819,105 Americans claimed Cherokee heritage in the 2010 Census, more than any other named tribe in the Census.
Native American recognition in the United States, for tribes, usually means being recognized by the United States federal government as a community of Indigenous people that has been in continual existence since prior to European contact, and which has a sovereign, government-to-government relationship with the Federal government of the United States. In the United States, the Native American tribe is a fundamental unit of sovereign tribal government. This recognition comes with various rights and responsibilities. The United States recognizes the right of these tribes to self-government and supports their tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to establish the legal requirements for membership. They may form their own government, enforce laws, tax, license and regulate activities, zone, and exclude people from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money.
The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 is a truth-in-advertising law which prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts products within the United States. It is illegal to offer or display for sale or sell any art or craft product in a manner that falsely suggests it is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian Tribe or Indian arts and crafts organization, resident within the United States. For a first time violation of the Act, an individual can face civil or criminal penalties up to a $250,000 fine or a five-year prison term, or both. If a business violates the Act, it can face civil penalties or can be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000.
The Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of individuals who self-identify as Cherokee but are not state or federally recognized as a Native American tribe or government. The headquarters for the NCNOLT is in Columbia, Missouri.
The Southeastern Indian Artists Association (SEIAA) is an intertribal Native American nonprofit arts organization headquartered in northeastern Oklahoma.
Cherokee Preservation Foundation is an independent nonprofit foundation established in 2000 as part of the Tribal-State Compact amendment between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and the State of North Carolina. The Foundation is funded by the EBCI from gaming revenues generated by the Tribe; it is not associated with any for-profit gaming entity and is a separately functioning organization independent of the Tribal government. It works to improve the quality of life of the EBCI and strengthen the western North Carolina region by balancing Cherokee ways with the pursuit of new opportunities.
The Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior whose mission is to "promote the economic development of American Indians and Alaska Natives through the expansion of the Indian arts and crafts market." It was established by Congress in 1935. It is headquartered at the Main Interior Building in Washington, DC.
The Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama is a state-recognized tribe in Alabama and Cherokee heritage group. It is based in northern Alabama and gained state-recognition under the Davis-Strong Act in 1984.
The Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama (CTNEAL), formerly the Cherokees of Jackson County, is a state-recognized tribe in Alabama. They have about 3,000 members. The tribe has a representative on the Alabama Indian Affairs Commission and the Inter-Tribal Council of Alabama. They are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe.
In the United States, tribal disenrollment is a process by which a Native American individual loses citizenship or the right to belong within a Native American tribe.
Cherokee descent, "being of Cherokee descent", or "being a Cherokee descendant" are all terms for individuals with some degree of documented Cherokee ancestry but do not meet the criteria for tribal citizenship. The terms are also used by non-Native individuals who self-identify as Cherokee despite lacking documentation or community recognition.
Jeanne Rorex-Bridges is painter and illustrator based in Oklahoma. She is a member of the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, a state-recognized tribe.
Pretendian is a pejorative colloquialism describing a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by professing to be a citizen of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation, or to be descended from Native American or Indigenous Canadian ancestors. As a practice, being a pretendian is considered an extreme form of cultural appropriation, especially if that individual then asserts that they can represent, and speak for, communities from which they do not originate.