The Raven’s Nest Treasure store in Pike Place Market, pictured Friday, in Seattle. Two artists are facing federal charges that they forged Native American heritage to sell works at a store and another gallery in downtown Seattle.
Ted S. Warren / AP
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Ted S. Warren / AP
The Raven’s Nest Treasure store in Pike Place Market, pictured Friday, in Seattle. Two artists are facing federal charges that they forged Native American heritage to sell works at a store and another gallery in downtown Seattle.
Ted S. Warren / AP
SEATTLE – Two artists are facing federal charges that they forged Native American heritage to sell work at galleries in downtown Seattle.
Lewis Anthony Rath, 52, of Maple Falls, and Jerry Chris Van Dyke, 67, also known as Jerry Witten, of Seattle, have been charged separately for violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which prohibits misrepresentation in the marketing of American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Rath falsely claimed to be a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and Van Dyke falsely claimed to be a member of the Nez Perce Tribe. Merchandise including masks, totem poles and pendants went on sale in 2019 at Raven’s Totem Treasures in Pike Place Market and at the Ye Olde Curiosity Store on the waterfront.
“By flooding the market with fake Native American art and crafts, these people,” said Edward Grace, assistant director of the U.S. Office of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement. This crime deceives consumers, undermines the economic livelihoods of Native American artists, and undermines Indian culture,” it said in a press release.
Rath and Van Dyke will appear in US District Court on Friday afternoon. Their attorneys, federal public defenders Gregory Geist and Vanessa Pai-Thompson, said in an email Friday that they did not have any immediate comment on the allegations.
Authorities say the investigation began when the Arts and Crafts Board of India, an agency of the Home Ministry that promotes indigenous arts, received complaints that both had fraudulently considered themselves members registered tribal member.
Rath was charged with four counts of misrepresenting Indian-made goods, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Van Dyke faces two counts of the same count.
Rath also faces one count of unlawful possession of golden eagle parts and one count of unlawful possession of migratory bird parts.
According to the indictment documents, an employee of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, which has been in business for more than a century, told investigators she wrote Rath’s artist biography based on information he provided. about their tribal relations.
Matthew Steinbrueck, owner of Raven’s Nest Treasure, told investigators that the artists told him they were tribal members and he believed them, according to the documents. He said that he did not knowingly sell counterfeit Indian products.
“I’ve been doing this in good faith for many years – for over 30 years,” Steinbrueck told The Associated Press on Friday. “Our whole mission is to represent authentic Indigenous art. We’ve got over 100 authentic Indigenous artists. I’ve always kept their word for that.”
He said his family has come to appreciate American Indian culture for a long time, ever since his great-grandfather adopted a tribe member. Steinbrueck’s father, Victor Steinbrueck, an architect credited with helping to preserve Pike Place Market and Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, introduced him to revered indigenous culture, he said.
Van Dyke told investigators that Steinbrueck’s idea was to represent his work as a Native American.
Steinbrueck denied it, saying that Van Dyke appeared to be trying to reduce his own guilt. He called Van Dyke “a gifted sculptor” who made art in the style of his wife’s Alaska Native tribe, including pendants carved from mammoth or walrus tusks. fossil.
Neither Ye Olde Curiosity Shop nor Raven’s Nest have been charged in the case.
Gabriel Galanda, Seattle Native rights attorney, of the Round Valley Tribe in Northern California, says that if stores offer products made by Indigenous peoples, they should verify the heritage of the founders generate, such as by examining tribal registration cards or federal certificates of Indian blood.
“These galleries take due diligence,” says Galanda.
