Few categories of Native American material draw as much curiosity as artifacts, whether a stone point turned up in a plowed field or a painted bowl passed down in a family estate. Few categories also carry as much legal and ethical weight. Before anyone asks what an object is or what it is worth, the first question should be whether it can be owned and sold at all. In this guide, we start with the law, because it shapes everything else. We then turn to identification and to the line between artifacts and contemporary work in traditional styles, before closing with what responsible collecting looks like today. This is general information for collectors, not legal advice, and specific situations call for a qualified attorney.
For the broader context of Native American and Southwest art that these objects belong to, our pillar guide covers the full sweep of the tradition.
The word artifact means any object made or used by people. In common usage, it usually refers to older objects made for use within a community rather than for commercial exchange. Archaeologists sort them into broad categories: Lithics, which include chipped or ground stone objects such as projectile points, scrapers, axes, manos, and metates; Ceramics, meaning pottery vessels and sherds; Organic materials such as baskets, textiles, wood, bone, and shell, which survive less often than stone; and Metal, including copper ornaments and, after European contact, silver and iron.
The market uses the word loosely. A pottery bowl made in the 1970s for sale at a Pueblo feast day is art, not an artifact in the archaeological sense. That distinction has legal consequences.
Pre Columbian, Burnished Ladle 40 Colima. View Work
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was enacted November 16, 1990. It recognizes the rights of lineal descendants and Native communities over four categories of cultural property: Human remains, which receive the greatest degree of protection; Funerary objects placed with the dead; Sacred objects needed for current religious practice; and Objects of cultural patrimony, meaning items of ongoing importance to a community as a whole that no individual could have lawfully sold.
NAGPRA primarily governs institutions. Federal agencies and museums receiving federal funds must inventory their collections and repatriate covered items. The National NAGPRA Program, administered by the National Park Service, oversees compliance, and its regulations were substantially revised in 2024.
For private collectors, the law operates differently but is not irrelevant. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly buy or sell human remains without right of possession, or to traffic in cultural items obtained in violation of NAGPRA. Penalties were strengthened in 2022: trafficking in human remains is now a felony on the first offense, and repeat offenses can carry up to ten years in prison. In a 1997 case, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction of a dealer who sold Navajo ceremonial masks.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 was the first federal law protecting archaeological sites on public land. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, known as ARPA, built on that foundation. It protects archaeological resources at least 100 years old on federal public lands and Indian lands. No excavation or removal is permitted without a federal permit. It is also illegal to buy or sell resources unlawfully removed under ARPA, or to transport them for sale.
Material lawfully possessed before October 31, 1979 falls outside the trafficking provision. The ARPA exception is often misunderstood: the law's penalties do not apply to picking up an arrowhead from the surface of the ground, but that does not make surface collecting on federal land legal under other regulations. On private land, artifacts generally belong to the landowner, though state laws may protect burial sites regardless of land ownership. Where an object was found matters as much as what it is.
Tribes had long watched sacred objects appear at international auctions with no legal means to stop their export. In 2013, the Annenberg Foundation purchased nearly two dozen ceremonial items at a Paris sale and returned them to the Hopi Tribe and two Apache nations in Arizona. That episode helped push forward federal legislation.
The Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act, known as the STOP Act, was signed into law on December 21, 2022. It prohibits the export of cultural items obtained in violation of NAGPRA or ARPA, creates an export certification process, and supports voluntary return of cultural heritage. The practical consequence is that an object's legal status follows it across borders.
Spanish Colonial, Basket with Lid. View Work
Native American, Tall Cylindrical Basket. View Work
Identification begins with material and manufacture. Chipped stone tools show flake scars from knapping, and their edges carry patterns of use wear. Ground stone tools show smoothing from repeated grinding over long periods. Pottery reveals coil joins in cross-section, the character of temper used to strengthen the clay, and the presence of paint applied before or after firing.
Region and time period narrow the field considerably. Point styles and pottery types vary by place and century, and state archaeological societies and university museums are often helpful resources for identification. Reproductions are common in the market: skilled modern flintknappers make points that are sold honestly as contemporary work, but some pieces later get passed off as ancient. Pottery can be artificially aged. Uniform coloring and the absence of expected wear are reasons for caution. Objects like grooved axes and metates worn into a shallow trough by generations of grinding carry their history visibly. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe works alongside the Laboratory of Anthropology and can be a useful contact.
Much of what reaches the market as Native American art was made for sale by living artists working in traditional forms. These works are art, governed by the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, and collecting such work carries none of the legal concerns that attend archaeological material, provided the work is accurately described.
A contemporary Hopi katsina carving signed by its maker is art made to be sold. An older figure used in ceremony may carry obligations of a different kind. This distinction matters to communities: many tribes actively welcome the sale of contemporary art while objecting to the sale of ceremonially significant objects. The same distinction runs through the full history of Native American and Southwest art.
Native American, Large Pedestal Drum. View Work
Native American, Cradleboard with Doll. View Work
An honest answer begins with legality. An object that cannot be lawfully sold has no legitimate market value, regardless of its age or craftsmanship. Beyond the question of legality, value is shaped by condition, rarity, quality of workmanship, and the strength of documentation.
A qualified appraiser with experience in this specific field is essential for any significant piece. Documentation in this field is not a formality but a foundation. A clear written account of how and when an object left its place of origin, and how it passed from owner to owner since, protects the buyer and respects the communities whose heritage the object represents.
A few firm principles guide responsible collectors. Avoid human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony entirely. Ask for a written description stating what an object is and what its known age and history are. Be wary of objects said to come from public or tribal land without documentation supporting that claim. Remember that exporting culturally significant items is now restricted by federal law.
When in doubt, the tribal historic preservation office for the relevant nation is an appropriate contact. When we evaluate Native American artifacts, we ask first whether an object can be lawfully and ethically offered. At Windsor Betts, every piece carries our unconditional guarantee of authenticity. Objects that survive from the past belong first to the history and communities that produced them. The best collectors are those who keep that responsibility in view.