A Washington state family has pleaded guilty in federal court to violating the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act when they owned and operated several businesses in Ketchikan. They sold carvings and wood totem poles made by people in the Philippines, misrepresenting the items as authentic artwork made by Alaska Natives, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to the department, Cristobal Rodrigo, 59, Glenda Rodrigo, 46, and Christian Rodrigo, 24, sold carvings imitating traditional Alaska Native designs out of two stores in Ketchikan from April 2016 to December 2021. Under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, it is illegal to sell goods and falsely suggest that they were made by a member of an Indigenous tribe in the U.S.
Each of the Rodrigos pleaded guilty on April 28 in U.S. District Court in Juneau to one felony count of conspiracy and misrepresentation of Indian-produced goods.
The family members no longer operate the Ketchikan businesses.
The department said the investigation is ongoing, and that the Rodrigos face a maximum of 10 years in prison. A sentencing hearing has been set for Aug. 17.
According to a charging document filed in court on March 10, Cristobal Rodrigo owned and operated Rail Creek, which mostly sold imitation totem poles, while Cristobal and Glenda Rodrigo were joint owners and operators of Alaska Stone Arts, which mainly sold stone carvings imitating Tlingit and other Indigenous designs. Christian Rodrigo was an employee of both businesses and helped operate the stores.
Glenda Rodrigo hired employees in the Philippines to produce stone carvings and carve wood totem poles in Alaska Native designs and styles as instructed by Cristobal Rodrigo.
“The Philippine business was created for the sole purpose of producing carvings featuring Alaska Native designs and motifs through the use of Philippine labor,” according to the Department of Justice. “These carvings were shipped to the United States and subsequently to the Rodrigos’ stores in Ketchikan and were then sold as authentic Alaskan Native art to unsuspecting customers in Alaska and elsewhere.”
According to the charging document, Cristobal Rodrigo went to the Philippines around 1998 to teach Filipino carvers how to carve stone in Alaska Native designs and styles.
The Rodrigos “conspired, with each other and others, to design stone carvings and wood totem poles and display, advertise, and sell the stone carvings and totem poles to customers based on false representations that the stone carvings and totem poles were made by Alaska Natives or members of an American tribe,” U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker wrote in the charging document.
Many of the items sold for several thousand dollars.
According to the Department of Justice, undercover law enforcement agents visited Alaska Stone Arts on five occasions in the fall of 2019. During those visits, Christian Rodrigo and others offered to sell expensive carvings to the undercover agents and misrepresented the carvings as produced by Alaska Native people.
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