Washington State Artist Gets Probation for Selling Fake Native Art

A Washington state resident who misrepresented his Native American ancestry to sell his artwork at downtown Seattle galleries was given a federal probationary order and ordered to perform community service on Wednesday.

Lewis Rath, of Maple Falls, was given a two-year probation term and 200 hours of community service on Wednesday, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which forbids fraud in the selling of American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts, was one of many felonies with which he was charged in 2021.

According to the U.S. attorney’s office, an inquiry was launched in 2018 after the Indian Arts and Crafts Board received a complaint about Rath.

According to the attorney’s office, Rath misrepresented his affiliation with the San Carlos Apache Tribe of Arizona in order to sell carved wooden totem poles, transformation masks, and pendants to retail establishments in Seattle.

According to findings from the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Lab, agents who searched Rath’s home also found feathers from birds covered under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

“Counterfeit Indian art, like Lewis Anthony Rath’s carvings and jewelry that he misrepresented and sold as San Carlos Apache-made, tears at the very fabric of Indian culture, livelihoods, and communities,” U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Arts and Crafts Board Director Meridith Stanton said in a Justice Department statement. “Rath’s actions demean and rob authentic Indian artists who rely on the creation and sale of their artwork to put food on the table, make ends meet, and pass along these important cultural traditions and skills from one generation to the next.

Stanton added that his activities damage the public’s trust in the Northwest and national markets for Indian art.