Commitment to Integrity and Ethics

MY COMMITMENT TO INTEGRITY AND ETHICS IN THIS MARKET IS DRIVEN BY THE FOLLOWING PLEDGES:

--Havens Trading Company will maintain the highest degree of ethics in its dealings with the Indian artists.

--Havens Trading Company will trade ONLY in art authenticated to be handmade by the Native American artist from whom it was purchased and which contains a theme that is relevant to the culture of the Tribe of which the Indian artist is a member or with which he/she can demonstrate a close affiliation and community acceptance by marriage, kinship, or assimilation.

--Havens Trading Company will demonstrate only the highest degree of ethics, integrity, and cultural sensitivity in the purchase and delivery of authentic American Indian art to the consumer.

--Havens Trading Company will strive to confirm that it does not trade in culturally proprietary religious materials or artifacts. Many Native American communities are comprised of intricately woven webs of religious and ceremonial hierarchies and spheres of religious responsibility that rely on important ceremonial objects to perpetuate their ceremonial cycles.

--Havens Trading Company will not trade in funerary objects or any ceremonial objects the nature of which possess significance to the community to the extent that they are protected or may be considered culturally proprietary objects.

--Havens Trading Company will only purchase legitimate, quality, culturally relevant, American Indian art and crafts directly from the artists, and from a very select few reservation Native American wholesalers who are known to buy directly from the artists in an ethical manner, for retail sale to collectors and enthusiasts of American Indian arts.

ABOUT FAKE "INDIAN" ART

This market is largely flooded with fake artifacts (“artifakes”), jewelry and trinkets made overseas, articles resembling toys for non-Indian children to play “cowboys and Indians” such as small feathered headdresses, rubber tomahawks, bows and arrows, “Indian” dolls, etc., moccasins, and other articles designed to capitalize on “Indianness” by virtue of their “Indian”-like designs. It seems that anything with feathers, a “teepee” design, fake leather, arrowheads, plastic resembling turquoise, plastic dipped in silver paint, Indian “Princesses,” in fact anything capitalizing on the “Indian” theme, will sell. Havens Trading Company will NOT participate in this aspect of the market.

There are also thousands of fake "kachinas" made in factories on the Navajo reservation by Navajo carvers. Yes, these are "Native American made" objects. However, they are NOT legitimately "Kachinas." They are knockoffs, no more authentic than fake "Navajo style" jewelry made in the Phillipines. Kachinas are NOT part of Navajo culture. These "Navajo carved kachinas" are not only fakes, they are an unfair competition for the authentic carvings made by Hopi carvers.

Havens Trading Company does NOT buy or sell these Navajo carved dolls.