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WASHINGTON – On the evening before the beginning of the White House Tribal Nations Summit, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday evening passed H.R. 2930, the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony (STOP) Act of 2021. The STOP Act prevents the export of Native American cultural heritage to prevent these items from being exported and sold overseas.

 U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, released the following statement on Senate passage of The Committee favorably reported the bill’s Senate companion last year.

“For too long, the export and sale of sacred and culturally significant items from Native peoples in Hawaiʻi, Alaska, and across Indian Country has deprived these communities of their own history and heritage,” Chairman Schatz said. “Our bill will help stop the black market trafficking of these items and bring them home.”

"What great timing with the tribal White House Summit and all," Shannon O'Loughlin (Choctaw), CEO and Attorney for the Association on American Indian Affairs, said to Native News Online.
 

The bill now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law.

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About The Author
Levi Rickert
Author: Levi RickertEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Levi "Calm Before the Storm" Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at [email protected].