ABSTRACT
ON NOVEMBER 29, 1990, PUBLIC LAW 104-644, TITLED “AN ACT FOR THE Protection of American Indian Arts and Crafts Act” and best known as simply the “Arts and Crafts Act,” was signed by U.S. President George Bush.1 Through this measure, the federal government of the United States arrogated unto itself and its state-level subordinates the ultimate authority to determine who is/is not entitled to identify themselves as an American Indian “for purposes of selling arts and crafts,” usurping and in fact criminalizing the self-determining prerogatives of indigenous peoples in the process. According to Sec. 104 § 1159 of the Act:
(a) It is unlawful to offer for sale or display any good, with or without a Government trademark, 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.
