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Alaska's Right to Ivory Sales and Tradition ActSection 2 › Proposal

What counts as an authentic Alaska Native article of handicrafts and clothing

To amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to protect the cultural practices and livelihoods of producers of Alaska Native handicrafts and marine mammal ivory products, and for other purposes, section 2, Sec. 2. Written by .

What counts as an authentic Alaska Native article of handicrafts and clothing

The document says “meansWho acts: CongressHow: statuteSec. 2 in the PDF
What the document says

“means an item composed wholly, or in some significant respect, of natural materials and that is produced, decorated, or fashioned in the exercise of traditional Alaska Native handicrafts by an Alaska Native who resides in Alaska and who dwells on the coast of the North Pacific Ocean or the Arctic Ocean without the use of a pantograph, multiple carvers, or any other mass copying device.”

To amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to protect the cultural practices and livelihoods of producers of Alaska Native handicrafts and marine mammal ivory products, and for other purposes, Sec. 2

The first of three terms the new subsection defines, and the one the rest of it turns on. Four tests are written into it: the item is wholly or in some significant respect of natural materials, it is produced, decorated, or fashioned in the exercise of traditional Alaska Native handicrafts, the maker is an Alaska Native who resides in Alaska and dwells on the coast of the North Pacific Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, and the work is done without a pantograph, multiple carvers, or any other mass copying device.

What the document actually says

“means an item composed wholly, or in some significant respect, of natural materials and that is produced, decorated, or fashioned in the exercise of traditional Alaska Native handicrafts by an Alaska Native who resides in Alaska and who dwells on the coast of the North Pacific Ocean or the Arctic Ocean without the use of a pantograph, multiple carvers, or any other mass copying device.”

To amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to protect the cultural practices and livelihoods of producers of Alaska Native handicrafts and marine mammal ivory products, and for other purposes, Sec. 2
That sentence, in plain words

The item has to be made of natural stuff, all of it or a good part of it. It has to be made by hand in an old Alaska Native craft. The maker has to be an Alaska Native who lives on the coast. No copying machine may be used, and no team of carvers.

What this is about

A pantograph is a tool that copies a shape over and over. The law rules that tool out here. It rules out other copying tools too. The coast named is the coast of the North Pacific Ocean or the Arctic Ocean.

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The quotation is the document's own words, exactly as printed, and we check the page number against the Act itself before publishing. The paragraph underneath is our summary, not the document's words. So is the plain English version, which is why it sits beside the quotation rather than replacing it.

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