STOP Act Reintroduction With Santa Fe Indian School Leadership Institute’s Summer Policy Academy Students, June 21, 2017.

To announce the reintroduction of the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony (STOP) Act, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) hosts a meeting with students from the Santa Fe Indian School Leadership Institute’s Summer Policy Academy (SPA) in his office in Washington, D.C. The bipartisan STOP Act prohibits the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking tribal cultural patrimony. The students shared a position paper and personal stories on the importance of the STOP Act, articulating their generation's concern about fulfilling their sacred trust as generations before them have. The Santa Fe Indian School Leadership Institute’s Summer Policy Academy is designed for New Mexico high school juniors and rising seniors and convenes students for intensive sessions that focus on leadership, public policy, and community issues. The STOP Act has been endorsed by tribes across Indian Country, including the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Pueblos of Acoma, Santa Ana, Isleta, Zuni, Laguna, Nambé, Jemez, and Ohkay Owingeh as well as the All Pueblo Council of Governors, the National Congress of American Indians, and the United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund.