ARTIST Act

The bill would rewrite the Marine Mammal Protection Act's exemption for Alaska Natives, preserving their existing right to take marine mammals for subsistence or to create authentic Alaska Native handicrafts and clothing, while adding new definitions of "marine mammal ivory" and "traditional Alaska Native handicrafts." It would newly bar any state from prohibiting the interstate commerce, importation, sale, transfer, trade, barter, or possession of marine mammal ivory, bone, or baleen that has been incorporated by an Alaska Native into an authentic handicraft or clothing article. The bill would also require the Secretary to support any depletion-related restriction on Alaska Native takings with substantial evidence, documented in writing and posted publicly, when challenged by an Alaska Native organization. It would not alter existing Indian Tribe rights or required government-to-government consultation, and it would leave the Secretary's general authority to regulate depleted species intact.

Alaska Native artisans and hunters who produce ivory, bone, and baleen handicrafts, state governments that currently or might otherwise restrict sales of these items, retailers and buyers of Alaska Native handicrafts nationwide, and the federal agencies that regulate marine mammal takings.

Alaska Native artisans have faced state-level restrictions, notably ivory sale bans in some states, that complicate selling their handicrafts across state lines. The bill would preempt such state bans for authentic items and require stronger evidentiary support before federal regulators can restrict Native subsistence or handicraft hunting.

The amended exemption would take effect upon enactment, immediately barring state prohibitions on qualifying Alaska Native marine mammal handicraft items in interstate commerce. If the Secretary later seeks to regulate takings due to a depletion finding, the bill requires notice and hearing procedures already in the Act, plus a new written, publicly posted substantial-evidence justification whenever an Alaska Native organization brings a legal challenge to such a regulation, assessment, or determination.