House panel advances bill to let Alaska Native artists sell work with feathers

Alaska Native artists can face federal prosecution for selling their own work if it carries a feather. A House committee voted Wednesday to change that.

The bill is named for the man whose case made the problem plain. Archie Cavanaugh, a Tlingit artist and musician born in Wrangell and raised in Kake, was accused by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2012 of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act after he tried to sell a headdress trimmed with flicker feathers and a hat with raven feathers. He faced up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. He settled for a $2,000 fine, and had to strip the feathers from his pieces and turn them over to the agency. He never understood the charge, noting that flicker feathers appear on ancient work.

The Archie Cavanaugh Migratory Bird Treaty Amendment Act, introduced by Rep. Nick Begich, would clarify that the 1918 law does not bar possessing, selling, shipping, or transporting authentic Alaska Native handicrafts, clothing, or art containing nonedible bird parts, so long as the bird was not taken wastefully or illegally. An amendment Begich added at markup gives the State and Interior departments 180 days to work out procedures with Japan, whose treaty with the U.S. is one of four the law implements.

Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski have carried a companion bill in the Senate. Sealaska Heritage Institute has pressed for the change for years. The House bill now goes to the floor.