ATADA Letters Page
Letters to and from ATADA of Lasting Interest to the Membership
Letters Index
- Letter to the Membership from the ATADA Election Committee, December 15, 2010
- Letter to the Editor of Pasatiempo for Publication on 3 September, 2010
- ATADA's New Look, sent by email to all ATADA Members on 18 August, 2010
Letter to the Membership from the ATADA Election Committee, December 15, 2010
The ATADA Nominating Committee chaired by Mike McKissick came up with the following nominees for the 2011-2012 Board of Directors:
- Bob Bauver
- Peter Carl
- Roger Fry
- Bob Gallegos
- Kate Fitz Gibbon
- Alice Kaufman
- Mike McKissick
- John Molloy
- Clinton Nagy
- Wilbur Norman
- Arch Thiessen
- Leonard Weakley
Alice Kaufman will be contacting you with your ballots early in January.
Arch Thiessen, ATADA President and Webmaster.
replyto: Alice Kaufman, Alice@ATADA.org
Letter to the Editor of Pasatiempo for Publication on 3 Sept 2010
The following letter was sent to the Editor of Pasatiempo on August 24. It was agreed that this would replace the shorter letter to the editor sent on August 21. Due to the long lead time for publication of this weekly magazine, this letter is expected to be published in the September 3 issue of Pasatiempo.
*****
21 August, 2010
Amidst the festivities of Indian Market, the publication of the August 20 Pasatiempo strikes a somber tone with the story of the trials and tribulations of those engaged with American Indian art. It is the story of archaeologists, historians, pueblo elders, road builders, artists, photographers, collectors, law enforcement, museum curators, and (sadly) looters, all coping with the changing rules imposed by federal laws and differing values regarding artifacts.
The multi-article story presents a narrative view of a complex topic uncovering the secrets of the legendary Santa Fe Pueblo and recreating the search for The Seven Cities of Gold. There are side “excursions”, however. One article presents barely repentant, confessed pot digger, Craig Childs - “I've dug in the trenches and removed objects … and if I hadn't written and done the research, I might still be in those trenches.… I never want to feel like that looter again….” There is no real mention of his violating the law.
Frank Clifford's article mentions the forty members of ATADA (the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association) in Santa Fe. ATADA is a professional organization with strict ethical standards requiring its members to abide by the law. Illegal pot hunting is forbidden by our bylaws; nor do members traffic in human remains. (Remember that the vast numbers of human remains now in Federally funded museums are mostly the result of 19th century work conducted by scientists – not dealers and collectors!) ATADA fully supports repatriation with the voluntary repatriation of the Zuni War Gods by an ATADA member as proof of where we stand on this issue. Putting the ATADA name into the middle of a discussion of the nefarious practices of illegal pot hunters without explanation smacks of guilt by association.
Every case is fact-specific and all are different. The article’s example of the purchase of a bull roarer deserves more comment. A bull roarer made by a White Mountain Apache for use in ceremony is well known to be a ceremonial object, illegal to buy or sell. A similar bull roarer made by a Navajo and sold at a flea market is not a ceremonial object. It is the circumstances surrounding the object, not the object itself, that determines whether it is ceremonial and therefore legal or illegal to own under ARPA or NAGPRA. Thus a pot collected by an illegal pot-hunter is illegal to own, buy, or sell, while a nearly identical pot collected on private land with the permission of the landowner is fully legal under Federal law. Likewise, objects collected by permitted expeditions are fully legal to own. We fully support the rights of private individuals to own objects procured in these or similar circumstances. Proper provenance and documentation are essential in such cases and ATADA is working to improve the standards of documentation in the marketplace.
Collectors and dealers are facing the same issues as other professionals featured in this issue of Pasatiempo. Our members and clients are all struggling with how to deal with old collections under the new laws. We wish to assure your readers that no ATADA member is involved in illegal pot hunting and that all artifacts sold by ATADA members have been legally collected and are fully legal to buy, sell, hold, or donate under Federal law today.
Arch Thiessen, President
The Antique Tribal Art Dealer's Association
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The following letter announcing ATADA's New Look was sent to all ATADA members by email on August 18, 2010
Dear ATADA Member
The Art and the Law session in Santa Fe on Monday was ATADA's most successful presentation in my memory. The first person presentation by Dace Hyatt on Ted Gardener's questionable tactics and Jim Owens' hard-hitting talk on legal issues made the day.
This meeting was very well attended with nearly 150 people in the audience for an 8:15 AM talk. No doubt Alice's trip to Dunkin Donuts and fresh hot coffee added to the attractions. Numerous people from the press were busily taking notes during the presentations. Notable among them were Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press Writer who filed a report that appeared in numerous newspapers all over the USA on Tuesday and Wednesday. Also in attendance were reporters from The Santa Fe New Mexican, The Albuquerque Journal, and Channel 7 News in Albuquerque and several others whose names I did not catch.
The most complete report that I have seen so far came from Susan Montoya Bryan of AP. Her report is best seen in the Arizona East Valley Tribune at http://hosted2.ap.org/azmes/788acee4e023427bbfc19d9278ac9378/article_2010-08-17-artifacts/id-f31799c0af444e948070bb978c62691d You may need to search Google or Bing with search phrase "ap artifacts" to find a convenient link.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reporter writer Tom Sharpe's report is filed at http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local/Antique-Indian-Art-Show-Artifacts-dealer--Don-t-get-snared-by-- You may also find this article by typing www.santafenewmexican.com into your address bar and searching the newspaper site for "artifacts".
Channel 7 News in Albuquerque seems to have been the first to have posted a live report at http://www.koat.com/video/24653325/index.html Just paste this link into your address bar. Be Patient. It will start playing in a few moments. You will have to wade through two commercials. But you will be rewarded with a view of the show, Jim Owens speaking, and a look at Kate Fitz Gibbon's new booklet - "Native American Art and The Law: A Collector's Guide".
The three ATADA summer 2010 Publications are in the mail to you. The ATADA News should already be in your mailbox. The 2010-2011 Directory and A Collector's Guide should arrive late this week or early next week. Please let us know if any of these arrive after September 1.
Thanks go out to all those who worked so hard to put on the presentation and prepare our publications, in particular we wish to recognize the Legislative Education Committee: Bob Gallegos, Chair; Steve Elmore, Wilbur Norman, and Jim Owens; Legal Committee Chair, Kate Fitz Gibbon; Executive Director, Alice Kaufman; and last but not least, Show promoters Marcia and Ted Berridge who graciously provided the room.
This is a great rebirth for ATADA. But it is only a beginning. We need to continue to educate the collecting public on what is legal and the boundaries that we must not cross that would make some objects illegal. We need to generate a steady stream of positive publicity, we need to follow up with meetings with Museums and with Archaeological societies, and keep the pressure on our Congressional delegations to clarify the laws and make enforcement more uniform. We need your help and support to continue to make ATADA a force to be reconed with.
For further information, or to report errors and corrections, please contact Alice Kaufman at acek33@aol.com, phone 415-863-3173.
Arch Thiessen, ATADA Webmaster, Webmaster@ATADA.org .
