ATADA: Protecting the Past. Shaping the Future.

An organization OF and FOR collectors, dealers, and enthusiasts of the world’s traditional arts

The ATADA News 

Summer 2026

In This Issue:

New Members

Whitehawk 2025 - Going Strong for 47 Years

A look back at the 47th Annual Whitehawk show.

Whitehawk 2025 - A Tribal Perspective

by Mark Johnson

An Early Navajo Twill Blanket

by Jamie Compton

What’s Happening in Washington

A look at the Art Market Integrity Act and how it would affect art dealers and collectors.

Eye on Europe

The 411 on what Regulation EU880 is and how it may affect you.

From the Archives: “The Sculptural Traditions of the Kayanic-Dayek People of Eastern Borneo Island”

Join us for a look back at Mark Johnson’s article on the wonderful artwork of the Kayanic-Dayek people of Eastern Borneo from the Spring 2017 Edition of the ATADA News.

Calendar of Events

A sampling of Upcoming and Ongoing events and exhibitions

ATADA News Summer 2026

New Members

Please join us in welcoming the newest members of ATADA!

The enthusiasm, knowledge, and diverse perspectives of our members strengthen our organization. Whether you are a dealer, collector, scholar, curator, artist, or simply passionate about the world's traditional arts, we are grateful to have you as part of our community.

Welcome to ATADA! We look forward to getting to know you.

A Friendly Reminder to our Collectors and Dealers

When you purchase from an ATADA member dealer, you buy with confidence. ATADA dealers guarantee the authenticity, condition, and title of every object they sell.

We also encourage collectors to learn about the cultures these works represent and to understand the important roles they played, and continue to play, within their communities. Through education, ethical collecting, and responsible stewardship, we can help preserve and celebrate the rich cultural heritage embodied in these remarkable works.

ATADA News Summer 2026

Whitehawk 2026

Santa Fe's annual Whitehawk Antique Indian & Ethnographic Art Show returns August 6–9, 2026, bringing together more than 130 dealers specializing in Native American, ethnographic, tribal, and folk art. For nearly five decades, Whitehawk has been a favorite destination for anyone with an appreciation for exceptional works from Indigenous cultures around the world.

This year's show will feature Special exhibitions, including The First Moderns, highlighting remarkable Navajo Germantown weavings, and Heritage: A Legacy of Tradition, featuring Australian Aboriginal art from the Holloway Collection.

As always, many ATADA members will be attending. Whether you're searching for a special addition to your collection or just catching up with old friends, Whitehawk is one of the highlights of Santa Fe's market week.

If you are attending, be sure to stop by and visit your fellow ATADA members!

ATADA Members Exhibiting at Whitehawk

ATADA News Summer 2026

Native American Jump Start Gala Dinner

Don't Miss One of Whitehawk's Most Anticipated Events!

Make plans now to attend the Native American Jump Start (NAJS) Gala Dinner on Friday, August 7, at 6:00 p.m. During the Whitehawk Show, this special evening brings together collectors, dealers, artists, and supporters for an unforgettable celebration of Native culture, community, and opportunity.

The evening's keynote speaker will be Emil Her Many Horses (Oglala Lakota), Curator in the Office of History and Culture at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. A nationally respected scholar, traditional craftsman, and advocate for Native education, Her Many Horses will share his unique perspective on Native history, cultural preservation, and the transformative power of education.

Guests will also enjoy an exciting silent auction, live auction, and paddle raise, featuring exceptional works generously donated by dealers and collectors. Every bid helps support Native American Jump Start's educational initiatives, including the Chipeta Scholars Project, which provides multi-year scholarships to promising Native students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Native American Jump Start is dedicated to creating opportunities for high-potential Native American students through education and employment. The Chipeta Scholars Project is a cornerstone of that mission, providing scholarships of $5,000 annually for up to four years for undergraduate students and $10,000 annually for up to two years for graduate and postgraduate studies. Your participation in the gala directly helps fund these life-changing opportunities and empowers the next generation of Native leaders.

Whether you're looking to reconnect with friends, meet fellow collectors, or simply enjoy one of the week's premier social events, the NAJS Gala offers an evening filled with great company, inspiring stories, and the opportunity to make a lasting impact.

Collectors and dealers who would like to contribute a historic Native artwork to the auction are encouraged to contact Dave Deschenes, Advancement Officer, at davidd@nativeamericanjumpstart.org or 307-200-9232.

Reserve your tickets or purchase a table today: http://bit.ly/4ha7LS2

Join us for one of the most meaningful—and memorable—events of the Whitehawk Show!

ATADA News Summer 2026

Borneo Beads

 If you were at the Whitehawk Show in Santa Fe this past August, you may have run into Peter Merrill, or he may have run into you! Peter is our newest (and very enthusiastic) board member, and he’s launched something we’re really excited about: The Collector’s Circle.

If you haven’t heard, the Collector’s Circle is a show-and-tell social event where members bring favorite pieces, swap stories, and learn from each other in a relaxed, lively setting. Think of it as collectors geeking out together, sharing treasures, laughter, and maybe a few surprises along the way.

The first gatherings have been a hit, and now we’d love to see this idea spread. To make that happen, we’re looking for members across the country who want to host a Collector’s Circle in their own community. All it takes is a space, a little enthusiasm, and a willingness to bring people together.

Check out the Collectors Circle page to learn more: https://atada.org/collectors-circle

ATADA News Summer 2026

Damaging Effects of the New NAGPRA Regulations

by Will Hughes

TIME TO RESCIND OR REVISE NATIVE AMERICAN GRAVE PROTECTION AND REPATRIATION ACT (NAGPRA) REGULATIONS
(EFFECTIVE JANUARY 2024)

Revisions to the implementing regulations for the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA), effective January 12, 2024, were ostensibly intended to speed the return of ancestors and artifacts to tribes and to give Native Nation governments greater authority in how Native heritage is managed in institutions receiving federal funding. However, these dangerously flawed regulations promulgated by DOI under the Biden administration go well beyond such intentions and require wholesale revision to correct both the functional and legal problems created.

The new regulations mandate ‘deference’ to Native American ‘traditional knowledge’ and require prior permission from Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations for museums to exhibit artifacts. These NAGPRA revisions have resulted in shuttered museum galleries and have dramatically altered public and scholarly access to American history and heritage. Archaeological research on America’s prehistory has now virtually ceased. The new rules repurpose NAGPRA to give complete authority and control over all Native American art and artifacts in museums and federal agencies to tribes and Native Hawaiians organizations, effectively requiring tribal permission for museum and institutional management and administration of historical collections.

On January 26, 2024, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the largest natural history museum in the world, announced that the museum would close its entire Native American exhibit halls, pending determination of compliance with the new NAGPRA rules. A sign at the museum posted in February 2024 reads: “The artifacts in this case have been removed from view because the Museum does not have consent to display them.” The Denver Museum of Art has removed a display case of ceramics, the Cleveland Museum of Art has covered three of its six cases of Native North American art, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University will remove funerary items from exhibition. The Seattle Art Museum has removed Northwest Coast objects of Tlingit origin from its galleries, deeming them ‘cultural objects’ for which permission to display them must first be obtained and is considering removing more. In May 2025, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Rockefeller Wing reopened after a 4-year, 70-million-dollar remodel. Missing from the world cultures represented in the Rockefeller wing were artifacts produced by Native Hawaiians—every other Polynesian culture is represented. The David Geffen Galleries at LACMA opened on April 19, 2026 with none of the museum’s collection of Native American art installed-except for a couple of late Pueblo pots. Conspicuously absent from the gallery devoted to Pacific cultures is art from the indigenous Hawaiian culture of our 50th State. The art of U.S. native cultures, Native American, Alaskan and Hawaiian have for the most part disappeared from display, courtesy of these destructive new NAGPRA regulations.

The requirement for prior consent to display ‘cultural’ items requires museums to obtain permission from Native American tribal governments, Native Hawaiian Organizations and Alaska Native Corporations whose cultural items are represented in their collections. This poses a very daunting task as there are over 550 federally recognized tribes in the continental U.S. and more than 120 Native Hawaiian Organizations which are effectively self-designated and federally recognized for only 5-year periods. Ordinary objects created for sale, are now subject to repatriation on demand under the new regulations which require deference to “Native American traditional knowledge”. Many poorly informed (or possibly virtue signaling) museums now believe that they must or should defer even to the claims of politically motivated activists who have no objective evidence whatsoever to support their characterization of an object as Cultural Property or its actual connection to a particular tribe.

The regulations do not address the possibility that a tribe and museum may disagree as to what is a ‘Cultural Property’ subject to the prior permission requirement for display. What if the tribe does not answer a request for permission to display? What if a tribe refuses a request by a museum for permission to display? Does a museum have a right to seek a nonbinding decision from the NAGPRA Committee or seek relief in Federal Court? The new regulations provide absolutely no guidance on any of these issues, rendering collection management currently impossible under the NAGPRA law.

Native Hawaiian Organizations encompass a broad range of social, spiritual, and business organizations without any consistent ‘traditional knowledge’. Hawaii has no permanent ‘tribal organization’ or established community ownership of ‘inalienable property’. Native Hawaiian Organizations are not tribes, and no one organization can speak for all Native Hawaiians. There is no Hawaiian entity to go to obtain full, informed, and prior consent to the management, usage or display of Native Hawaiian items. The new regulation does not provide any guidance as to what the consent of Native Hawaiian Organizations would look like. Is consent required from all 120 plus organizations, most organizations, a few organizations or just one of them to meet this mandate under Section 10.1 (d)?

The new regulations introduce the novel, non-Western legal concept: Native American traditional knowledge”. The term is a first-time experiment with the use of myth, magical thinking, purposeful vagueness and restorative justice in regulations implementing a U.S. statute:

“Native American traditional knowledge means, philosophies, beliefs, tradition skills, and practices that are developed, embedded, and often safeguarded by or confidential to individual Native Americans, Indian Tribes, or the Native Hawaiian Community. Native American traditional knowledge contextualizes relationships between and among people, the places they inhabit, and the broader world around them, covering a wide variety of information, including, but not limited to, cultural, ecological, linguistic, religious, scientific, societal, spiritual and technical knowledge. Native American traditional knowledge may be, but is not required to be, developed, sustained, and passed through time, often forming part of a cultural or spiritual identity. Native American traditional knowledge is expert opinion.” 

Section 10.1(a) of the new regulations states in part that “consistent with the Act, these regulations require deference to Native American traditional knowledge of lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian Organizations.” The regulations propose to elevate hearsay and myth over history, science and scholarship. Deference to currently held “traditional knowledge” may lead to unexpected and unpredictable results. For example, an object not previously considered a “sacred object” may now be repatriated based upon a claim by a current tribal government or Native Hawaiian Organization that it is sacred, based solely upon newly developed traditional knowledge.

The revised regulations constitute gross agency overreach. NAGPRA itself contains no reference to Native American traditional knowledge, yet this unconstitutionally vague term is a key operative provision in the new regulations. In addition, the NAGPRA law itself does not mandate deference to this newly invented term. Clearly, the revised regulations cannot, and should not, withstand legal challenge after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in the Loper Bright Enterprise v. Raimondo and Relentless Inc. v. Department of Commerce cases, overturning the Chevron agency deference standard. Legal challenges to the new NAGPRA regulations are certainly coming. DOI should remedy these flawed regulations before the agency is obligated to defend the indefensible.

Museum collections of Native American objects are almost entirely made up of secular objects. Most Southwest and Plains Indian collections were made from objects collected after tribes began commercial productions of Native American arts in the 1870’s and 1880’s. Commercial trade by Northwest Cost and Alaskan Native tribes date even earlier, to the late 18th century. Art museum collections reflect their donor’s interest in objects from the 150-200 years of legal trade in Native American art and artifacts.  The new regulations will discourage private collectors of Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian art from donating artworks to museums for the public’s education and enjoyment, fearful that gifts will become subject to unproveable tribal repatriation demands. Ironically, most Native Americans do not live on the reservations to where objects would be repatriated. Over half of the U.S. American Indian and Alaska Native population lives off-reservation with a majority living in urban or suburban areas served by museums subject to NAGPRA. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more Native Hawaiians now reside in the continental U.S. than in Hawaii.

The forced repatriation of an object as to which a museum has good and lawful title under State law, but as to which the museum lacks a “right of possession” (as defined in NAGPRA) because it cannot be proved that the object was acquired with the consent of its original owner would result in a 5th Amendment taking. The new revisions to existing NAGPRA regs were made without a formal review of their Fifth Amendment takings implications as required under Executive Order 12630.

No reassessment of NAGPRA implementing regulations has been made after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Rice v. Cayetano, 528 U.S. 495 (2000). The Court found that Native Hawaiians are an ethnic minority or race and not analogous to federally recognized Indian tribes that enjoy a “special” relationship with the U.S. government. Although, a voting rights case, the Rice v. Cayetano decision calls into question whether Native Hawaiians may be granted special privileges without violating constitutionally mandated equal protection.

Native American activists have made hyperbolic claims that all artifacts in museums are “stolen” and accordingly, all artifacts must be returned to tribes. Such claims are false and simply an attempt to revise history to support a larger political agenda. Activists intentionally conflate repatriation with reparations for past injustices suffered by Native peoples. Most artifacts in museum collections were in fact purchased from Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. The remainder of these objects were obtained by barter, gift, or discovery. Very few objects in museum collections, if any, were obtained through looting, theft or armed conflict. Native American activists successfully captured the rule making process at DOI during the last administration. The resulting revised NAGPRA regulations are a disaster for museums and endanger the collective heritage of all Americans. Prompt action must be taken to remedy the disaster at U.S. museums caused by these misguided revisions to NAGPRA regulations before any more damage is done.