ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The clock is ticking until the end of the week when public comments will end about proposed rule changes to the Indian Arts and Crafts Act.

Leaders with the Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of Interior argue the proposed changes will strengthen the act. However, many Alaska Natives and American Indians are worried the rule changes will diminish their culture and local Native business protections.

“This is a painting that I did of a Deg Hit’an fish bag,” Melissa Shaginoff, Ahtna and Paiute artist and independent curator said, at her studio in Anchorage. “I do a lot of work in museum collections and a lot of research looking at our cultural belongings. I like to paint them and draw them to try to give some life back to them because we believe all the things that we make, that we put spirits into them … even the animals that gave their life so we can have the materials to make this fish bag, that their spirit is still within the bag. The work that I do within museums is to try to honor the lives that are in collections and their spirits.”

She sees the protections established within the Indian Arts and Crafts Act as the point — to protect sacred art and traditions like she maintains and produces.

“To protect us from forgery and falsification of making things and opening the door by allowing this loophole, is basically going to subvert the whole thing,” Shaginoff said.

The proposed changes to the act by the Department of the Interior create a loophole for bad actors, Shaginoff said.

“It’s going to have devastating effects on our future as artists and as makers,” she said.

The interior department released a document in April outlining the proposed changes which include, “The draft revisions seek to modernize the Indian Arts and Crafts Act’s regulations, which are implemented by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (Board). The draft revisions bring a co-equal focus to promotional activities, expand the definition of Indian Product, allow for non-Indian labor to work on Indian Products in certain situations, and use a new certification trademark to certify that an item is an Indian Product.”

The Alaska Natives and American Indians asked about these changes fear it would create a situation where items would be able to be mass-produced by non-Native people.

“Creating a market in which you’re competing with non-Native makers for the thing that is specifically related to you and part of your culture, not only does it subvert the authenticity and the true story of what you’re representing, it is creating so much distance between that thing, that product, that art piece that you’re admiring and the animals, the land, the culture in which it comes from,” Shaginoff said.

The proposed changes would require ownership of a business producing Native items to be at least 50 percent indigenous-owned.

“I see this as something that could really even change how we even define Indigenous art. Indigenous art needs to be protected,” Shaginoff said.

Heather Dawn Thompson, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, said the changes will strengthen protection for artists.

“These changes are incredibly important,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the changes will also add more protections for what she calls one of the Native culture’s most important economies.

“Arts and crafts are one of the most important economies in Indian Country and we have large swaths of Native artisans and craftsmen that are left behind, that are completely not covered by these protections,” Thompson said. “And so, this has not been updated in decades. We want to make sure that this is strengthened and that more artisans are covered.”

That means one of the main changes will be what’s certified ‘authentic’ in the application process, Thompson said.

“Our hope is by strengthening it, by making it a bigger deal, by having more artisans that have it and strengthening that up, then, the consumer is going to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, if this isn’t Native made, if this doesn’t have this label, I’m not going to buy it because I know now, that it’s supposed to say ‘Native made.’”

Back where some of those purchases are made, Shaginoff said if changes happen at all, she wants more specific protections.

“(Ahtna phrase spoken) which means, you put your thoughts into what you’re making in it and I think a big part of the Indian Act itself, the Arts and Crafts Act itself, is to protect that right,” Shaginoff said. “To protect the parts of our culture where we’re able to make art.”

The interior department said modernizing rules will more easily allow non-Natives to work on film and television projects under the direction of Alaska Native and Native American direction.

Every Alaskan asked about this said they don’t know anyone working in those industries who’s had issues because of the current rules.

Public comment ends Sept. 1. People who want to give their feedback can email consultation@bia.gov

Copyright 2023 KTUU. All rights reserved.