Tyrone D. Campbell passed on Thanksgiving morning at age 86 in Scottsdale, Arizona. His partner of twenty-seven years, Lillian Black, passed several days before him.
He was born in Missouri in 1938, but his family moved to New Mexico when he was just a child. In 1971, he published the Tyrone D. Campbell Newsletter for the Trade, writing about Navajo and Pueblo textiles, their beauty, and their investment value. He was fascinated by Navajo chantways and collected rare books on the subject. His passion for Navajo and Pueblo textiles was endless. He was a treasure hunter first and a businessman second. He loved to find treasures and enjoy their beauty for a time before selling them to collectors worldwide. He was considered one of the foremost experts in his field. He ran many successful galleries, curated numerous exhibits around the country, lectured, and wrote many catalogs for Navajo and Pueblo textile collections. He co-wrote Navajo Pictorial Weaving 1880-1950: Folk Art Images of Native Americans in 1991 and co-wrote Navajo Pictorial Weaving 1880-1950, Expanded Edition in 2018.
When he passed, he was with his daughters Una Campbell, Kari Dawn Daniels, and Nina da Costa. Per Tyrone's final wishes, there will be an informal memorial service on the banks of the Rio Grande in Corrales, New Mexico, on December 29, 2024, at 1:00 PM. Don't hesitate to contact Una Campbell at (505) 400-9027 or email her at una@parnalllaw.com for location details if you want to attend.
Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Bob Gallegos
Robert V. Gallegos, recipient of ATADA Lifetime Achievement Award and Founder of the ATADA Voluntary Returns Program
by Kate Fitz Gibbon
In August 2024, Robert “Bob” Gallegos received the ATADA Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest accolade for a member of ATADA, the Authentic Tribal Art Dealers Association. Gallegos helped to found ATADA in the 1990s, as the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association (ATADA now also includes dealers in postwar and contemporary ethnographic art). ATADA is an international association of dealers, auction houses, museums and collectors. It is focused on ensuring that its members meet the highest standards of ethics, integrity and responsible collecting practices.
Gallegos has seen every facet of the tribal art trade since Native American art achieved widespread global recognition in the 1970s. Native American art has long been the most popular form of art collected in the United States, with important collections starting with that of Thomas Jefferson and expanding continuously since the second half of the 19th century.
Gallegos became a collector as a teenager in northern New Mexico. His college degree in business and finance only briefly took him into a banking career. After just a few years, his passion for Native American art drew him into a lifetime in the art trade, first as a trader in contemporary pottery from Southwestern pueblos in the 1970s. In the 80’s, Gallegos’ connections with Native carvers and potters enabled him to establish a flourishing local Albuquerque auction house. He built an appraisal business serving museums, collectors, shippers and the IRS, drawing on his intimate knowledge of the whole range of antique and contemporary Indian art. He was also fascinated – and concerned – by the prevalence of fakes by non-Natives being substituted for authentic works. By the 1990s, he had co-curated an early show on Native American fakes at the Maxwell Museum in Albuquerque and completed an important book on historic and contemporary pottery with Francis Harlow. Gallegos has also contributed to other books on historic Native American jewelry, in which he specialized.
As a founder of ATADA, Gallegos served as its President for several years in the 1990’s and as Treasurer from 1990 to 2012. He has been active in representing art trade interests both locally and nationally. Gallegos testified before Congress in hearings in support of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Thirty years later he testified again before Congress, this time challenging the unworkable and imbalanced provisions of the 2021 Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act (the STOP Act). Mostly, however, Bob has worked quietly behind the scenes, for example in limiting the intrusion of government into private collecting in NAGPRA, or in obtaining agreement from tribes on a compromise bill to the STOP Act (unfortunately later abandoned by them). In the case of the STOP Act, excessively burdensome legislation may be a factor in the Department of Interior’s failure to define export procedures almost two years after passage. Instead, Bob has worked to build consensus and better understanding, seeking pragmatic, workable solutions instead of engaging in adversarial grandstanding, an approach that has earned him the respect of tribes and art dealers alike.
Gallegos has continuously served as a member of ATADA’s board, and in recent years has led the ATADA Foundation, a separate 501(c)3 nonprofit. The Foundation provides grants to arts and arts policy organizations, museums, institutions, and federally recognized tribes. It promotes programs that advance knowledge of the cultural, historical, and aesthetic importance of the tribal arts of North America and the world, and the peoples that create it. The Vecinos Project, recently created by the ATADA Foundation, specifically invites tribes and tribal organizations to submit proposals for activities and programs that support both the cultural arts and the well-being of Indigenous peoples in the United States. 2023 Foundation grant recipients included the Casa Martina Restoration Project in Chimayó, New Mexico, a scholarship fund for Indigenous students at the Institute of American Indian Arts Foundation, and artist programs at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Lectures and Symposia
Gallegos has long understood that building an ethical trade and working to establish positive public policy went hand in hand. Always focused on promoting legitimate trade practices, Gallegos organized a 1993 seminar entitled “Collecting and the Law” in Santa Fe, bringing in as moderator Kevin Gover (Pawnee Nation), an attorney who later served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior from 1997-2001 and director of the National Museum of the American Indian from 2007-2021. While NAGPRA applies to museums and other federally funded institutions, private collecting, even of sacred artifacts, is legal and not subject to NAGPRA provisions on return. Many sacred artifacts were originally released onto the market decades ago after tribes adopted Christianity and turned away from their ancestral religion. A reawakening of traditional spirituality and strong sense of Native identity has taken place in recent decades and encouraged claims for returns of long lost sacred objects.
A frequent speaker himself, Gallegos subsequently organized numerous educational programs, culminating in a major Santa Fe symposium in 2017, “Understanding Cultural Property: A Path to Healing Through Communication.” This symposium, which overflowed the capacity of Santa Fe’s largest hotel ballroom, featured not only lawyers, educators, and auction house representatives, but also traditional spiritual leaders and Cultural Preservation Officers from a number of Southwestern Native Nations.
ATADA’s Voluntary Returns Program
Gallegos used the symposium venue to announce a signature program he had built for ATADA, the ATADA Voluntary Returns Program. In 2016 Gallegos had responded to a challenge from a Native American attorney to build positive relationships between art dealers and collectors and Native American tribes. A legal trade in Indian artifacts has been countenanced and even encouraged by the U.S. government since the 1880s, leaving millions of objects, including a small number of sacred objects, in private hands.
Gallegos identified the greatest challenge as the reconciliation of seemingly disparate concerns held by Native American communities, museums, collectors, and the art market. He sought to establish a collaborative approach that would establish that there were “inalienable tribal objects” whose trade was inappropriate, even if they were legal to own and sell. Gallegos wanted to find a means of bringing key sacred objects back to tribes without damaging a market that not only supports the trade, but which is a primary source of income to Native American artisans, especially in the Southwest.
ATADA responded with multiple complementary actions, modifying its bylaws to prohibit members from selling sacred items that have current ceremonial use and adopting due diligence guidelines prohibiting sales of items removed unlawfully from tribal communities.
Gallegos also urged the ATADA Board to set up the first and only Voluntary Returns Program for Native American sacred objects in the U.S. – which the ATADA Board unanimously approved in 2016. Gallegos and other Board members began to gather ceremonial items from willing donors, long-term collectors and art dealers, who felt that these objects – which are living entities for the tribes – should be in tribal hands.
At the 2017 symposium, Gallegos explained how the Voluntary Returns Program, in its first year, had brought back dozens of truly sacred objects needed by tribal communities for religious and spiritual activities.
Through the symposium and his continuing educational work, Gallegos has made the ATADA Voluntary Returns Program a phenomenal success – both in consciousness-raising within the collector community and in locating and bringing over 500 important sacred objects to tribal communities in New Mexico and Arizona in just the last six years.
Returned items include several Zuni war gods, an Apache Crown (Gan) Headdress used in the Apache Crown dance ceremony, Acoma and Laguna flat and cylinder dolls, Hopi ‘friends,’ Navajo Yei masks, numerous prayer sticks, bandoliers, rattles, arrowheads and other jish that are part of a medicine bundle. Gallegos has personally followed through on every step of the program, from sharing information on objects located across the U.S. with tribal leaders, to working to identify the proper tribal affiliation. This can be very challenging, as many objects left communities 50 or 100 years ago, and their significance has sometimes been lost. Gallegos routinely drives five hours or more each way to deliver the collected objects and put them directly in the hands of spiritual leaders, who decide their appropriate usage or burial. Most recently, Gallegos located an important altar that had been missing from a tribe for more than 60 years. Gallegos’ mission today is to encourage the continuation of this signature effort, both to return key sacred objects and to build collaboration and goodwill between the art trade and the Native American community.
The venue chosen for the presentation of the ATADA Lifetime Achievement Award was the annual Whitehawk Antique Indian & Ethnographic Art Show in Santa Fe. This August marked the largest Whitehawk show ever, bringing together 131 national and international dealers in tribal art from around the world. The award was presented by ATADA President Will Hughes. As Hughes described the many contributions that Robert Gallegos had made to education, public policy, and the betterment of the art community, Gallegos responded with his usual gentle humor, saying that if he’d known how much he’d have to do, he’d never have started in the first place.
Congratulations to Robert Gallegos!
NAGPRA Revisions for 2024
In a recent newsletter, Will Hughes highlighted a few of the revisions to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.
Kate Fitz Gibbon has written an in-depth, 26-page report on the revisions which came into force in January 2024. The report describes the impact these new regulations are having on museums, educational institutions, donors and researchers, as well as updated definitions of terms such as "cultural items", "sacred objects", and "cultural patrimony", among others.
If you have not already done so, I urge you to read the full report on the Cultural Property News website at:
https://culturalpropertynews.org/the-new-nagpra-traditional-knowledge-in-artifacts-out/
In Memoriam - John Morris
John Morris (May 16, 1939-November 10, 2023)
We announce with regret that John Morris, ATADA member, Objects of Art Shows partner, and friend to many of us, passed away on November 10th.
John lived an epic life, although he did struggle with a long term illness in his later years. He was an historic rock and roll promoter and producer as well as a producer of art shows in his later years. His support of and commitment to the tribal arts community through the many shows that he co-produced will certainly be missed. Many of you that knew John well will, of course, miss him.
For those of you that did not know John well, we would like to share his biography taken from a recent obituary:
John H. Morris, Jr., of Santa Fe, NM, the creator and first managing director of the Fillmore East rock & roll theatre in New York City, and the production manager of the original Woodstock Festival of Art and Music, died at his Santa Fe, New Mexico home Friday, November 10, 2023, after a long illness.
Born in Grammercy Park in 1939, Mr. Morris studied theater at Carnegie Tech. At the age of 25, after a brief career as a lighting designer off-Broadway, on London’s West End, and at Peter Cook’s The Stroller’s Club in New York, Mr. Morris launched his career as a theatrical producer. He acquired the rights to Peter Cook’s satirical British productions, The Establishment and Cambridge Circus, and toured the shows across the US with casts including John Cleese, Cass Elliot, Peter Bellwood and Joe Maher.
In July of 1967, during “the summer of love”, Mr. Morris produced his first rock and roll concert, a free show in Toronto, Canada’s City Hall square, featuring Jefferson Airplane, which drew a crowd of more than 50,000, second in size only to The Beatles’ Shea Stadium concert the year before. The show was to promote a week-long Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead rock & roll residency at Toronto’s O’Keefe Theatre produced by Mr. Morris and fellow Carnegie Tech alum Joshua White for West Coast rock & roll empresario, Bill Graham.
In Toronto, John Morris and Joshua White introduced elaborate theatrical staging to the world of rock and roll, including the first psychedelic light show projected from behind a giant screen. Their theatrical innovations in concert production have evolved into today’s elaborate staging of popular music shows and festivals.
Mr. Morris produced Jefferson Airplane’s first East Coast tour before rejoining Mr. White in December of 1967, to produce a weeklong Festival of Light and Music at the Minneola Theatre, featuring shows by Frank Zappa, Vanilla Fudge, Tim Buckley and Ravi Shankar, that formally launched the psychedelic Joshua Light Show.
Mr. Morris then produced rock concerts at the Anderson Theatre on New York’s Second Avenue for Crawdaddy magazine, where, with Janis Joplin’s New York City premier, he convinced Bill Graham to open an east coast theatrical version of his already legendary San Francisco’s psychedelic rock ballroom.
Eighteen days after Graham and partners including Bob Dylan’s agent Albert Grossman, acquired Lowes lower east side Village Theater, Mr. Morris, and a crew including theater tech students from NYU, led by Professor Chris Langhart, opened The Fillmore East with Janis Joplin, BB King, Tim Buckley and the Joshua Light Show on the marquee.
After co-producing the first European concert tours for Jefferson Airplane and The Doors with Doors manager Bill Siddons, Mr. Morris was invited to join the production team for the Woodstock Festival of Art and Music. For Woodstock, Morris booked most of the bands which would appear at Woodstock, assuring that both the relatively unknown Santana, Country Joe and the Fish and Joe Cocker were on the bill. During the iconic, but weather-plagued three-day festival, where a crowd anticipated to be 100,000 grew to an estimated half a million, Morris was the principal Master of Ceremonies and is recognized as “the voice” of Woodstock, having made the now famous announcement, “it’s a free concert from now on”
After moving to England in 1970 to organize the European Producers Association and promote touring US rock bands, Mr. Morris launched London’s first rock & roll theatre, The Rainbow, in Finsbury Park, with The Who as its opening act, November 4, 1971.
Mr. Morris continued to produce rock and roll events throughout Europe and the United States until 1990, including 19 Grateful Dead concerts; the premier European tour of Paul and Linda McCartney’s post-Beatles band, Wings; and tours with Ike and Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, New Riders of the Purple Sage and Santana. His production companies, Jumping Jack Productions in the UK and Europe, and Cadogan Productions in the US, mounted concerts for artists including Stevie Ray Vaugh, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa. He also acted as manager for Otis Redding, the Danish band Gasolin’ and Japanese jazz musician, Stomu Yamashta, producing Yamashta’s third album, Go Too for Arista Records.
A collector and student of Native American art and artifacts since boyhood, Mr. Morris opened a Native American Antiques store in London in 1973, The Bear Creek Trading company. In 1995, he joined with Kim R. Martindale to produce antiques, fine art and design shows, throughout the US. For the next 28 years, their Antiquities Shows, Native American Art Shows and Objects of Art Shows were produced in Santa Fe, NM; New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Scottsdale, and Napa.
The son of John H. Morris and Louise Morris, John’s Grammercy Park, childhood in New York City was interrupted when his father returned to active duty in the US Army during the Korean War, and he attended 6th grade in three states, before the family settled in Pleasantville, NY following the war.
Morris is survived by his partner of 33 years, Luzann Fernandez of Santa Fe, NM; brother, Mark Morris of Sneden’s Landing, NY, nephew Eric Morris of Los Angeles, CA, and nieces, Nicole Merrick and her husband Keil; Marie Fernandez and her husband Guillermo Serrano Terren; Katie Fernandez; grandnephews Oliver and Charlie Merrick and grandniece Kate Merrick.
John H. Morris, Jr., is also survived by a world of loyal and loving friends drawn to him over a lifetime on concert stages, sailing adventures, photographic safaris, dinner tables, art show floors and pickup football games.
Plans for a Celebration of Life will be announced at a later date. The Family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Mr. Morris’s memory to Assistance Dogs of the West in Santa Fe, NM.
Adios John,
Will Hughes, President ATADA
Mark Blackburn, President ATADA Foundation
STOP Act Information - January 2023
This information is current as of January 16, 2023. We will provide updated info as it becomes available.
THE STOP ACT HAS PASSED.
WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW? WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?
The Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act of 2021 (the H.R. 2930 version) was passed by the Senate on November 29, 2022 and was signed into law by President Biden. The stated purpose of the law is to stop the export and facilitate the international repatriation of cultural items prohibited from being trafficked by the Native American Graves Protection Act (NAGPRA), and archaeological resources prohibited from being trafficked by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (ARPA) or any other Federal law or treaty. The STOP Act explicitly prohibits the export of items obtained in violation of NAGPRA, ARPA or any other federal law and in addition creates an export certification system for other items that may be exported but only after receiving export certification from the Interior Department.
Many ATADA members have requested guidance on how to navigate the export of Native American or Native Hawaiian objects after passage of the STOP Act. We follow with the best guidance that we can offer at this early stage.
Detailed guidance can’t be offered yet as to which Items require export certification or which items ultimately will not require any certification at all to export. The definitions contained in the law itself of items covered are vague, and we do not yet have the final or even proposed implementing regulations for STOP to give us further guidance.
It will take a year, perhaps more, for the Interior Department to go through the process of issuing proposed regulations all the way through to the adoption of final regulations. In the meantime, there will be no functioning export certification system, so compliance with STOP’s export certification provisions cannot yet be expected from exporters as to “Items Requiring Export Certification” under the law.
At this point, the only provisions of STOP that are now fully effective and enforceable are those provisions related to the ban and penalties attached to the export of an “Item Prohibited From Exportation (essentially items being “trafficked” in violation of NAGPRA, ARPA or any other Federal law).
Accordingly, the best advice right now is to be very cautious if you are exporting an item. Don’t attempt to export any item that you think may have been obtained in violation of NAGPRA, ARPA or any other Federal law. Of course, you should have been following such advice even before the passage of STOP. While we don’t see a legal justification for U.S. Customs to change its procedures before STOP regulations are finalized, it is also possible that Customs could raise questions about exports of antique or prehistoric objects based upon its own interpretation of authority derived from STOP’s export ban on Items Prohibited from Exportation. So again, be very cautious when considering the export of an item which could reasonably be characterized as a “cultural item” or “archaeological resource” under NAGPRA or ARPA.
Provenance has always been important, but under STOP it will be critical if you intend to export an item. Good documentation could be the key to a smooth export process.
Until we have final implementing regulations, the best course of action is to be fully prepared to document the provenance of all the Native American and Native Hawaiian items in your inventory or collection to the greatest extent possible. The best provenance, although admittedly rare, will provide documentation of the original acquisition of the piece from a tribe, tribal member or Native Hawaiian, or the original discovery of an archaeological piece. For example, a photo of a Great Aunt at Acoma Pueblo in 1905 holding the dough bowl she just purchased, or a photo of a Great Grandfather holding an Anasazi pot that he found on his ranch in Southern Colorado in the 1930’s. The next best provenance would be documentation of an early acquisition history, the earlier the better. For example, the Harvey House souvenir shop receipt a Great Aunt received for a piece purchased in 1915; or the receipt for a Hawaiian object that a Great Grandfather purchased at an antique shop in Honolulu in 1895. If you have a documented provenance before 1979, then the object cannot have been trafficked in violation of ARPA; if you have a documented provenance before 1990, then the object cannot have been trafficked in violation of NAGPRA. It is clear that objects lacking any credible provenance at all will not be eligible for export certification under STOP, and certain types of objects with only a very recent provenance may be unlikely to receive export certification. Objects that can be characterized as funerary items are very unlikely to receive export certification as in most cases the exporter will be unable to meet the burden of proof of a “right of possession” to the such object.
Note: The information contained on ATADA’s website and in e-mail communications to its members is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter. Anyone seeking specific legal advice or assistance should retain an attorney.
Return of Yeii Mask to the Navajo Nation
ATADA would like to thank the Navajo Nation for their guidance in the return of this traditional Jish to the proper caretakers.
To date, the ATADA Voluntary Returns program has helped facilitate the return of over 350 important sacred and ceremonial objects. This vital work continues to build positive relationships between communities. We remain committed to the idea that working together is the best way to bridge divides and forge a better world for all people.
Click here to learn more about the Voluntary Returns Program.
Open Letter on Damaging Anti-Money Laundering Legislation
From: Will Hughes
Date: March 23, 2022
ATADA Members,
Below is a link to an important open letter from CINOA (joined by ATADA) which was published by the Art Newspaper. It was submitted to publications in Europe & the U.S. and we expect it to be widely picked up, in whole or in part.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/03/14/damaging-and-unjust-legislation-linking-art-and-antiques-trade-to-money-laundering-and-terrorism-financing-must-stop-industry-body-says
Sincerely,
Will Hughes
Support the ATADA Legal Fund
You can help us continue our work to protect your rights as dealers and collectors. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.
New ATADA Educational Video
ATADA is pleased to present our latest educational video on the traditions of Navajo Weaving.
Vecinos Outreach Project
Dear Friends,
I would like to extend an invitation to be part of the Vecinos Outreach Project.
Vecinos means “neighbors” in Spanish. It is in that spirit that we are raising funds to help indigenous communities address needs that they deem important. Instead of relying on laws that address everyone’s concerns and hoping they are fair, we believe in starting this community-based approach founded on respect and honor. We anticipate some challenges with implementation at first, but all activities will be 100% transparent. We hope that this will be just the beginning of meaningful relationships that will serve as a model for the future.
The ATADA Foundation will be the conduit for the donations. The accounts will be under my purview and verified by our CPA. Please feel free to ask questions and make suggestions, as much of our policy will be determined as we go.
Further information about the ATADA Foundation and the Vecinos Outreach Project can be found by visiting https://atada.org/atada-foundation
As you plan your charitable donations, please consider supporting this important project. Working together, we can help to build stronger communities, forge new relationships and a better future for all.
Sincerely,
Robert V. Gallegos
The ATADA Foundation
November 30th is Giving Tuesday
Please help us raise $5,000 on this #GivingTuesday to jump start the Vecinos Outreach Project.
DONATE BY CHECK
Please make checks payable to:
The ATADA Foundation
* include ‘Vecinos’ in the memo line
Mail checks to:
Robert Gallegos
215 Sierra Drive S.E.
Albuquerque, NM 87108
DONATE ONLINE
You can make a donation using your credit card or PayPal account.
Click the Donate button to get started.
Anti-Money Laundering Legislation Will Affect You
Legal artifact collecting, small businesses and hobbyists are directly threatened by legislation that could kill small businesses trading in artifacts and antiques.
On Jan. 1, 2021, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Under Section 6110, this bill called for the Bank Secrecy Act to be amended to subject all “antiquities dealers” to anti-money laundering regulations that could drive small traders in antiques and artifacts out of business. This legislation makes “antiquities dealers” – who are not defined - into "financial institutions" under the Bank Secrecy Act.
Regulations are being written today aimed at people who legally collect artifacts, who go to artifact shows and who buy, sell or trade them.
How could regulation affect you? Typical Bank Secrecy Act rules would require all “antiquities dealers” with sales of $50,000 a year to collect private information including the name, address, and source of their money from buyers and sellers and file transaction reports with FINCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), a Treasury entity. FINCEN shares this information with US tax authorities and police in 90 countries around the world.
Dealers could be required to do an annual independent audit and file Suspicious Activity Reports on cash or large sales over $2,000-$3,000. Anti-money laundering programs even for small businesses can cost thousands of dollars per year as well as the time required to comply. It is impossible to fly under the radar; regulations are enforced by the banks that will freeze or close accounts which do not comply.
American businesses, traders, and collectors, large and small, should ask FINCEN to define “antiquities” as narrowly as possible and to adopt high monetary thresholds before reporting is required.
The Treasury was given one year to decide what regulations to impose on the trade. FINCEN will soon announce a “Comment Period” for the public to respond to proposed regulations via the Federal Register. ATADA will post instructions below.
As soon as the Comment Period opens, it will be crucial to let U.S. FINCEN regulators – and your Senators and Congressmen – know that they should exempt the small businesses of the American Indian art and artifact trade from unnecessary regulation. Make YOUR VOICE count!
When the proposed regulations are issued and the comment period opens, ATADA will post links and instructions here.