Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, Congress has long recognized the importance of Native American Tribal cultural items and their historical, traditional, and cultural importance to Native American Tribes. Approximately 137 million Native American artifacts, works of art, and specimens are in the Smithsonian's collections according to the Government Accountability Office. Both the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act provide a legal framework for the repatriation of human remains and cultural items to Indian Tribes. While these two statutes have greatly reduced the sale of cultural items within the United States, many items have appeared in European auctions where they have little legal protection from being sold. In recent years, Paris auction houses facilitated the sale of Hopi, Navajo, and Acoma Tribal masks and ceremonial items. The U.S. Government attempted to intervene to prevent the sales, but the French government and the auction houses maintained that they were legal. In response to this problem, former Congressman Steve Pearce introduced a concurrent resolution in March of 2016 condemning these sales and requesting that the U.S. Comptroller General conduct a report on the issue.…”