Selling a "Navajo Hipster Panty" may be cheesy and kind of offensive, but, more worrisomely perhaps for Urban Outfitters, it could also be illegal. In the U.S., under the terms of the Federal Indian Arts and Crafts act of 1990 and the Federal Trade Commission Act, it is prohibited to falsely claim, or even imply, that a product is Native American-made when it is not. The Department of the Interior says:
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. If a business violates the Act, it can face civil penalties or can be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000
"Navajo" isn't an aesthetic movement — it's a legal entity, a tribe of people, and an actual nation.
More information here: http://www.racialicious.com/2011/10/10/urban-outfitters-is-obsessed-with-navajos/
Native American tribe gets $380 million to end lawsuit
he United States reached a final settlement of $380 million Friday with a Native American tribe to resolve allegations of mismanagement of trust assets in a long-standing lawsuit. The agreement with the Osage Tribe capped a 12-year dispute over the Interior Department's accounting and management of trust funds and non-monetary trust assets belonging to the Oklahoma tribe, including its mineral estate. "This historic settlement resolves with finality long-standing trust accounting and trust management claims by the Osage Tribe," Assistant Attorney General Ignacia Moreno said after tribal officials celebrated the settlement during a ceremony at the Interior Department's Washington headquarters.
Parks Canada erected a striking new totem pole in Jasper on Saturday but the monument is causing frustration for a local First Nations group. The new pole was carved by two brothers from the Haida nation, which is hundreds of kilometres away, off the north coast of B.C. Chief Nathan Matthew of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council said there is no cultural significance for the Jasper region in the totem pole.
Abused by nun, native woman tells commission about Prince Edward Island boarding schools
P.E.I. survivors of Indian residential schools had an opportunity Tuesday to testify about their horrific treatment at the hands of the federal government and the church. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission held an all-day hearing at the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel. The commission gives people an opportunity to speak openly, or privately, about the residential school system that existed in Canada for more than 100 years. Marie Knockwood wrote a song about her time at the Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia. She told the hearing about sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of a nun.
“We’re Rebuilding a Nation” Island’s First Nations movement strengthens with establishment of populated but landless Mi’kmaq band. After decades of negotiations between the island’s First Nation leaders and the federal and provincial governments, more than 20,000 of Newfoundland’s Mi’kmaq population have been recognized as status Indians by the Government of Canada. On Sept. 26 the Federation of Newfoundland Indians (FNI) and Canada’s Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development announced the establishment of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation Band. The decades long struggle, initiated by a small group of Mi’kmaq visionaries in the late 1960s, abated in 2007 when the federal government and FNI negotiated an agreement-in-principle to form the landless band.
