HaHaaaaaaaaaaa! So You want to win at playing the Indian Arts and Crafts Law Act of 1990.(P.L. 101-644) It is a truth in advertising law that prohibits misrepresentation in marketing of Indian arts and crafts in the United States. It is one of a very few laws that actually protects the American Indian and provides a small doorway of opportunity for individuals and tribal groups. You can type the law in any search engine and read every specific details of the law. You can pretend that you never heard about it and stick your head in the sand.You can plead ignorance when caught or use Bill Gates's business model and never ask for permission, just do it until caught and then beg for forgiveness! You should have learned by now that ignorance of any law is not excuse for avoiding penalities of breaking that law.  The law and it Severe penalities have been recently upheld by Federal Court in Illinois.

If convicted the 1990 amendments authorized the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to refer complaints to the F.B.I. for investigation and potential criminal prosecution or recommend that the Secretary of the Interior refer the matter for civil action. These civil suits can be brought by any Indian Tribe,any individual Indian,or Indian Arts and Crafts association.
All of the above could cost you a lot of Dead Presidents and perhaps the loss of your Ebay or total business and
banked fortune. I have been warning you for a long time,some of you more than once both in Emails and on the PoWWow trail. And yes some of you are Indian but you still cannot take the tag off of a peice of Chinese Turquoise Jewelry and sell it as Navaho, or Zuni  any more than the next guy. You cannot sign Maria's name to a nice Mexican blackware pot and call it a Maria. You cannot sign Lucy M. Lewis to a beautiful Acoma pot and call it a Lucy Lewis.
You cannot sell Chinese baskets as Indian or Native baskets or beadwork by Asian Indians or African copies and  and smirk like and say yes this is Indian made! you cant Sell me those Mexican blankets from the El Paso Saddle bag company at a poWWow and tell me a Navaho made it,or better yet That Bessie Begay made it ! You really cannot tell people in your listings and elsewhere that those Minnetonka's are made by Indians in Minnesota.
Oh, but they don't have money or people for enforcement of this LAW at the B.I.A. ? You heard that one too? Oh, they are nice at the Indian Arts and Crafts Board and will look the other way while you list FAKE INDIAN ART? Oh, Congress really didn't mean to pass this one we will get them to change it ? Write your Congressman or contact his lobbyist. The last major involvement of this group who with the help of lobbyist Jack Abramoff tried to Steal millions from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe and others,  had to pay it all back and then some, and
they and the lobbyist are going to prison, or at least pay large fines for their illegal activities.

More than likely your Congressman or Congresswoman is having their own issues with greed while in office and really don't have time to do much for those of you who voted for them.

 Thomas Bayanca, a well known Hopi Holy man told me years ago in my teepee at the Solar Community that was located near the Grand Traverse Indian Reservation in Michigan,  that there is a image of the whiteman etched on a ancient sacred stone at Hopi Land that perdicts these TIMES and it is a White Snake, the snake is eating and accidentally swallowed his own tail, and he just keeps swallowing,and swallowing everything until, no snake! HaHaaaaa folks you can run but you can't hide . That Snake is eating and it is your,our GREED that will put us on a slide right into its belly! The IACA law was designed to protect the Indian person who depends on his art or craft to provide a living for his/her family. When you get someone else in a Third world country to mass produce that beaded item you are taking the potatoes off his/her table. Contrary to popular belief not all Indians are getting payments from that highly visible Casino in your area. That was another good doorway law to the 20th Century for many Indians and  a few steps away from the abject poverty and hunger that was so rampant in Indian Country a few years ago. But in most part several thousand Indians are still carving a very small cottage business out in the wilderness where they live. Some of them are getting on Ebay with their beautiful one of a kind art or craft items from the far reaches of the Mother Earth. LOLOLOL Even Intuits from the frozen North! LOLOLOL They are laying their trade blankets into this EBay World Marketplace!
So why don't you dishonest business folks and traders just clean up your act and play the game the way it is supposed to be played. You know in your head and heart that the Indian can never be paid for the damage done to him/her tribe,Country, you can never repay for the holocaust that they have been through or are going through because of GREED, Because if you don't wake from your slumber each of those individual Indians who you are taking away their livelihood away from have a way they can get a little money back from your brilliant greedy schemes. It is my understanding that under the Indian Arts and Crafts act as amended in 1990 guarantees that any Individual Indian person may sue anybody who advertises products in a manner that falsely suggests they are made by Indians. The law imposes a $1000.00 penalty per offense. All the Indian person has to do is save your false listing and print every copy of it even if you just believe it to be Indian made. They can save several listings for awhile buy some of that cheap junk and file their civil suits all at one time, odds are far better than a lottery ticket! Take it to that new young well educated Indian Lawyer and assert their Congress and God given rights to a livelihood. LOLOLOLOLOL They can save them up until they have enough to equal the worth a new car, a home, or a few acres of that Lakeshore or farm property your Great Grandaddy stole from from their ancestors. The copies of the printed published fake listings are absolutely better than the DEAD Presidents and it doesn't take near as many to add up. Hmmmmm let's see a person could pick out 5 or 10 FAKE items listed here,print them up, times per day times 365 days, that take is better than most multi-level marketing firms even if you are at the top.
 Even if, your Grandma was a Cherokee Princess and said it was an old Indian basket she had given you on her death bed. Even if, your name is (Snowflake)(similar screenname name changed to protect the not so - innocent here on EBay) and your mother kept her Indian turquoise jewelry in the Old Indian sweetgrass(Really a Nixon Era Chinese Basket) it is still just Chinese straw prisoner made basket and will remain so. Even if, the Colonel Auctioneer said at the live auction I have this fine collection of Woodland Indian sweetgrass baskets right here. Even if, the ESTATE SALE lady had a note on the table that read all the items on this table are Indian maid. Yes, these are all true experiences, Yes,   I too bought many of these FAKE items and had to learn the hard way that a fine, signed, Big Brawny, shiney, German Silver, slippery mercury loaded Navaho Bracelet  for $150. I bid on and bought that was featured  at  at a live Big Doug Allard Auction in Phoenix Arizona was a phoney! The large Turquoise nuggets were carefully foamed in from the foam insulation you buy in a can and the nuggets were cleverly painted to look like natural sleeping beauty . It was appraised in the Auction Catalog and I still have it, at 350.to 450. I was the only Sleeping Beauty. LOLOLOLOLOLOL

 
Hey by the way,are any of you interested in old copies of the Indian Trader Newspaper or Old  Indian Auction Catalogs? I will list them if enough of you show interest.Good place to get photos and prices of Indian Art and artifacts.

Well folks, Indian or non-Indian, the only way to win at the American Indian Arts and crafts Law of 1990 is to follow the Gene Autry Cowboy Way and be a straight shooter. Or if you remember the radio program Straight Arrow, man I ate a lot of Shredded Wheat because of him!  be a Straight Arrow.  I wish I still had my Straight Arrow adjustable Ring probably worth a fortune on Ebay! Today

 Now I know (Snowflake) won't understand those words,bear with me, I need to talk a bit down to her, (Snow flake), in other words,Don't speak with a forked tongue. (Snowflake), In plain GOOD BOOK WORDS, THE BIBLE, THOU SHALL NOT TELL A  LIE!
That is a good motto for any business.
Whatever you do have fun and laugh a lot!

Thanks Bill,and Dead Man Walkin! Lynda, Lady Dove,Shawnee Lady,Falling Leaf, Eddie,Freda,Jack,  and thanks again for reading my ramblings,I enjoy all your cards and letters!

Sincerely,
Old
Woody