Salmon

Ms. Adams' work raises the issue of just who has the right to use traditional Native imagery. Ms. Adams is a Japanese-American whose late husband was a Tlingit native. Her two sons are considered Tlingit and Ms. Adams claims to be an honorary member of the tribe. She and her husband learned about traditional imagery together and designed both two and 3-dimensional works based on that imagery. But because she is not a Native, there are many in the Indian community who strongly object to her use of Native symbols. The Native Americans see her adoption of the style and symbols to be just the latest in a long history of cultural theft perpetrated upon the Native populations by outside cultures. This on-going issue of cultural provenance is a contentious one for not only Native Americans, but for other ethnic groups as well. The right to protect one's cultural heritage from misinterpretation and exploitation is important. It also raises interesting issues as to who is qualified to use a particular culture's symbols, and what constitutes the desecration of those symbols.