I believe it is long overdue to modernize the 1990 IACA, and help protect Indian artists of federally-recognized tribes.

Obviously, this is an enormous amount of money that should be going back to Indian Country.

I too support the modernization of the Act to better protect the artists and the Indian art industry.

you don't necessarily need a criminal conviction in order to do a forfeiture, is that correct, or would you be recommending the two be combined together?

The scope of the counterfeiting problem is far larger than expected.

The protection of tribal nations is of the utmost importance to the Department of the Interior.

Do tribal governments play a role or could they play a role in certifying authentic Native American arts and crafts for sale online?

We commend Senator Tom Udall and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for taking up this important strengthening of the Arts and Crafts Act

I was very pleased your committee visited Santa Fe for a Field Hearing on Modernizing the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA) on July 7th 2017.

I fully support efforts to enhance and enforce legislation providing harsher penalties for those who would cheat our indigenous artists by appropriating their culture.

Well, first of all, welcome to everybody today. It's wonderful to have you here, and it's wonderful to be at this location.

Thank you so much, Miss Begay-Foss.

Good afternoon Vice Chairman Udall and Senator Heinrich.

Thank you, Senator Heinrich so much, and thank you for your good, hard work on the STOP Act, which is for the protection of cultural patrimony.

Like you say, it is a new age. And if people are violating the law, we're going to be coming after them, and they will be brought to justice.

I would just advise everybody to look at the reporting that's out there, because there's some very good reporting that I think elucidates some of these issues.

I would ask that in addition to revising the statute, that you would also consider respectively contacting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

But I imagine this access presents the challenges with respect to online sales of Native arts and crafts and IACA enforcement.