HR5694-119

What This Bill Does

The ARTIST Act rewrites the Marine Mammal Protection Act provision for Alaska Native use of marine mammals. It defines authentic Alaska Native articles of handicrafts and clothing as items made wholly or significantly from natural materials by Alaska Native residents of the North Pacific or Arctic coasts using traditional handicraft methods and not mass-copying devices. It defines marine mammal ivory to include walrus, narwhal, or whale teeth or tusks, and it lists traditional handicrafts such as weaving, carving, stitching, sewing, lacing, beading, drawing, and painting.

The bill keeps the exemption for Alaska Native subsistence taking and for taking marine mammals to create and sell authentic handicrafts or clothing, so long as the taking is not wasteful. It allows qualifying handicrafts to be sold in interstate commerce, allows edible portions from marine mammals taken for handicraft purposes to be sold for Native consumption or in Alaska Native villages and towns, bars states from prohibiting trade in qualifying marine mammal ivory, bone, or baleen handicrafts, and requires written substantial evidence before certain federal depletion or adverse-impact restrictions can be imposed in actions brought by Alaska Native organizations.

Who Benefits and How

Alaska Native artisans gain clearer legal protection for selling qualifying handicrafts made with marine mammal ivory, bone, or baleen in interstate commerce. Alaska Native subsistence communities and Alaska Native families benefit because the bill preserves subsistence taking and allows edible portions to be used for Native consumption or local village sales. Alaska Native organizations gain a stronger evidentiary standard when they challenge federal restrictions affecting covered people or stocks. Alaska Native village businesses and local sellers gain reduced legal risk for trade in authentic, non-mass-produced handicrafts that meet the statutory definition.

Who Bears the Burden and How

NOAA Fisheries Service and other federal marine mammal regulators must support covered restrictions, assessments, depletion determinations, and adverse-impact findings with a written public explanation based on substantial evidence and Indigenous knowledge. State wildlife-product regulators, state attorneys general, and state enforcement agencies are barred from prohibiting covered interstate commerce in qualifying Alaska Native handicrafts. Sellers of non-qualifying ivory products and sellers using mass-copying devices remain outside the exemption and face continued enforcement risk. Marine mammal conservation organizations may face a higher evidentiary threshold when supporting restrictions on covered Alaska Native uses.

Key Provisions

• Defines authentic Alaska Native handicrafts, marine mammal ivory, and traditional Alaska Native handicraft methods for the Marine Mammal Protection Act exemption.
• Protects non-wasteful Alaska Native subsistence taking and taking for creating and selling authentic handicrafts or clothing.
• Allows qualifying handicrafts to be sold in interstate commerce and allows edible portions to be sold for Native consumption or in Alaska Native villages and towns.
• Requires federal restrictions affecting covered Alaska Native uses to be supported by written substantial evidence that considers the whole record, including Indigenous knowledge.
• Prohibits states from barring covered trade in marine mammal ivory, bone, or baleen incorporated into authentic Alaska Native handicrafts.
• Protects existing Indian Tribe rights and government-to-government consultation from being undermined by the amendments.