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- By Levi Rickert
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.”
The bill now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
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