Who Owns Native Culture? Resources for understanding the struggle for control of indigenous knowledge

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Recent Developments, Indigenous Cultural/Intellectual Property
Background information for students using this website.
The International Journal of Cultural Property is now regularly carrying articles on indigenous IPR and is actively seeking innovative submissions on this and related topics. For additional information, browse the website of the International Cultural Property Society.
Additional publications by Michael F. Brown, Williams College, on indigenous rights and heritage protection, most available for full-text download.
*RSS feed for Who Owns Native Culture?* website.**
Some blogs to track if you're interested in indigenous IPR, heritage protection, and questions of open access: SavageMinds, the Museum Anthropology blog, Material World, Culture Matters, and Kimberly Christen's Long Road. You might also want to check the web page of a project at Simon Fraser University in BC, Canada, called "Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage." Likewise the website of the Lawyers' Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation.

News, Stories, Documents
"Indonesia pushes for treaty against theft of genetic resources and culture." Jakarta Post, 19 November 2009.
John Tierney, "A case in antiquities for 'finders keepers'," New York Times, 16 November 2009.
"Bears, bombs and popcorn: Some considerations when mining other cultures for source materials," by Judith Berman. This short essay didn't get on my radar screen when it was published about three years ago. Definitely worth a look today. 16 November 2009.
The blog Don't Pay to Pray describes a lawsuit launched by the Lakota Nation against James Arthur Ray for his use of the sweat lodge ceremony in his New Age workshops--including the recent Sedona disaster in which several participants lost their lives. The post includes PDFs of various statements and relevant documents. 14 November 2009.
	Wampanoags resist wind turbine project: "The Wampanoag or "The People of the First Light" ... are asking the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to help them classify Nantucket Sound as traditional cultural property, a designation that could permanently becalm Cape Wind's project. Part of their bid to convert the Sound into sacred ground stems from the Wampanoag belief that the turbine generators' monopoles would be pounded 80 to 100 feet into the bottom in a Native American burial ground dating back to when the Wampanoag lived on what was then land." Update, 8 November: This emerging cultural property dispute has inspired a tsunami of articles and op-ed pieces in New England. Among them a skeptical editorial from the Boston Globe, as well as articles in Indian Country Today, the Associated Press, and letters to the New York Times.
Lawrence Lessig calls for a "copyright revolution." Inside Higher Education, 6 November 2009.
From the Wall Street Journal: "Cheap jewelry imports vex artisans in Southwest." Article about the flood of fake American Indian jewelry imported from abroad and its impact on Southwestern Indian artisans. November 2, 2009.
Useful article that I missed when it came out two years ago: Sharon Haensly, "Off-reservation cultural property protection." Indian Country Today, 1 Nov. 2007, linked here 31 October 2009.
Brief and provocative "Key Sentences" report from Free Culture Research Workshop 2009, held at Harvard on October 23. From Blawgdog, 29 October 2009. Addendum, Nov. 2: Be sure to see Kim Christen's blog post on Open Access and its multiple, contested meanings in the indigenous context.
"Nepal losing patent right on herbal medicines." Himalayan Times, 28 October 2009.
Jane Anderson, author of Law, Knowledge, Culture (2009), has posted the essay "(Colonial) Archives and (Copyright) Law" in the out-there art blog No More Pot Lucks, 28 October 2009.
"The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food warned that increasing dependency on commercial seed varieties monopolized by a few very powerful multi-national companies could severely impact small farmers in developing countries." Reliefweb.int, 21 October 2009.
"Is UNESCO damaging the world's treasures?" From the Telegraph, UK, April 2009, linked here 15 October 2009.
From the Huffington Post: Mayan religious authorities unhappy with popularization of 2012 meme.
Cultural appropriation may be hazardous to your health. Two die, others injured during New Age sweat lodge ceremony in Sedona, AZ. 13 October 2009. More on the story, 21 October 2009.
Some of the key players in Shaman Pharmaceuticals, whose approach to Amazonian bioprospecting is discussed in Who Owns Native Culture?, are now pivotal figures in Napo Pharmaceuticals. Here is a story about a recent conference related to their ongoing clinical development of the "proprietary patented gastrointestinal compound, crofelemer . . ., a first-in-class anti-secretory agent extracted from Croton lechleri, a medicinal plant sustainably harvested in several South American countries." 7 October 2009.
Discovered while trolling the web: A website about the Indian Motorcyle trademark and efforts to revive it in ways that would benefit Native Americans. (Site hasn't been modified since 2005, and I'm not sure about the status of this proposal four years later.) "Mapping the New Commons," by Charlotte Hess (Syracuse University Library), July 2008. Abstract and article available via the Social Science Research Network. From the abstract: "Tracking new commons over several years has demonstrated that this vast arena is inhabited by heterogeneous groups from divergent disciplines, political interests, and geographical regions that are increasingly finding the term 'commons' crucial in addressing issues of social dilemmas, degradation, and sustainability of a wide variety of shared resources. The resource sectors include scientific knowledge, voluntary associations, climate change, community gardens, wikipedias, cultural treasures, plant seeds, and the electromagnetic spectrum."
Rastafarians want to control their heritage, by Paul H. Williams. The Gleaner, 20 September 2009. Story about how the Ethio-Africa Diaspora Union Millennium Council is seeking "to secure, protect and manage the intellectual property of the Rastafari community worldwide, for the benefit of the Rastafari community worldwide; and to take all such actions as are necessary and appropriate to prevent the further theft and abuse of the symbols, emblems, music, cultural marks, tangible and intangible heritage of the Rastafari community worldwide."
Imams on satellite TV are reportedly "killing Berber culture." Daily Star, Beirut. Originally 14 August 2009, posted here 21 September 2009.
The University of Michigan Natural History Museum has been pressured to remove its dioramas of Native American life not because they are inaccurate, but because (among other reasons), Indians "were still being represented as tiny miniatures in boxes, sort of like hamsters, some said. And they were being portrayed in the context of dinosaur bones, rocks and dead, stuffed birds." Indian Country Today, 14 September 2009.
The Wall Street Journal published an interesting story about Korean efforts to promote its alphabet by teaching it to speakers of the endangered Cia-Cia language, a previously unwritten tongue considered endangered.
The extent to which NAGPRA excludes unrecognized Indian tribes from the repatriation process is now being recognized: "NAGPRA's nasty loophole," Indian Country Today, posted here 14 September 2009.
Who says that culture hasn't become property? Malaysia and Indonesia in war of words over ownership of pendet dance. 14 September 2009.
Walmart destroys Native American sacred sites to build new stores in several states. Institute for Southern Studies, 3 September 2009.
"FBI investigating ads offering Maine Indian scalps." Associated Press, 4 September 2009.
A must-read online article: Haidy Geismar (NYU) on cultural protocols for using and circulating photographs, especially those sourced in indigenous communities. 3 September 2009.
	"Indonesia drafting bill to protect its heritage." Jakarta Globe, 31 August 2009.
"Who should own antiquities?" by David Bollier. Dates to May but linked here 3 September 2009.
The International Journal of Cultural Property keeps publishing great articles on indigenous IP and cultural property. The latest issue (Vol. 16, Issue 2) focuses on the cultural significance of ownership of genetic information and includes articles by Julie Hallowell, George Nicholas, Spencer Wells, Theodore Schurr, Kimberly TallBear, Ripan Malhi, Dorothy Lippert, Jonathan Marks, Jenny Reardon, and Jane Anderson. These essays aren't available as open access documents as far as I know, but your library may have access rights. If you're interested in controversies about control of genetic information sourced in indigenous populations, it may be worth buying the entire issue directly from Cambridge University Press. 24 August 2009.
Peru and Bolivia at odds over authentic cultural origin of beauty-pageant contestants' costumes. Which country owns La Diablada? Wall Street Journal, 21 August 2009.
The Yale Law Journal (Vol. 118, 2009) just has published one of the most important articles on the legal status of indigenous knowledge in many years: "In Defense of Property," by Kristen A. Carpenter, Sonia K. Katyal, and Angela R. Riley. This (long) article is available as a full-text PDF. I'll have more to say about this essay later, but it is arguably the best legal case that has been made for comprehensive ownership by Native Americans of their traditional cultural expressions. Not to be missed! 12 August 2009.
Many more archived stories about recent developments in Indigenous IP, 2003-2006, 2007-