Neiman, Alaska Natives settle case
JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska Native cultural organization and luxury department store Neiman Marcus have settled a lawsuit over the sale of a coat with a copyrighted geometric design borrowed from Indigenous culture.
The Sealaska Heritage Institute said in a statement Wednesday that both sides, including 11 other defendants besides Neiman Marcus, agreed to terms “to resolve all disputes between them under U.S. and Tlingit law,” Juneau Public Media reported.
The Juneau-based institute is the cultural arm of the Sealaska Corp., the Alaska Native corporation for the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people of southeast Alaska.
In a federal lawsuit filed last April, the institute said the Dallas-based retailer falsely linked the $2,555 “Ravenstail” coat to Northwest coast native artists from California to Alaska through the design and use of the term Ravenstail.
According to the lawsuit, Neiman Marcus violated the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act requiring that products marketed as “Indian” are actually made by Indigenous people.
Sealaska also said the Neiman Marcus robe violates the copyright of Clarissa Rizal, a master weaver who created the Ravenstail robe in 1996. When she died in 2016, her family obtained the rights to the robe, said Jacob Adams, Sealaska’s lawyer.
In 2019, Rizal’s heirs registered the robe with the U.S. copyright office, the lawsuit said. The copyright was then exclusively licensed to Sealaska.
Neither Neiman Marcus nor its Alaska-based attorneys in the lawsuit immediately responded to emails from the Associated Press seeking comment.