Is this legal?

If you have inherited a very old collection from a family member, or if all of your items were personally found over many years on private property, it is perfectly legal to sell your collection. The only exception would be if any items in your collection are made from endangered species such as eagle feathers. Any human remains or grave items of any kind are not legal to sell. After all, you wouldn't want somebody poking around in one of your ancestors graves and selling their jewelry or bones.

Hunting artifacts on any federal/state owned land is considered illegal by federal authorities without prior written permission or permits. However, collecting arrowheads exposed at the surface of federal lands is a matter of some controversy.

In 1979, congress enacted the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. The intent was to criminalize the looting of archaeologically important Native American sites. Unfortunately, some federal authorities interpretation of the act also makes it illegal to pick up surface found arrowheads, which have little or no archaeological importance what so ever. In 1979, then president Jimmy Carter (an arrowhead collector himself) included a clause in the ARPA that specifically excluded surface found arrowhead from the stiff penalties intended for the looters. It is known as the "Carter Clause". Most federal employees will deny the clause even exists, but if you were to look it up under section 6, subsection (b) it states:

"No person may sell, purchase, exchange, transport, receive, or offer to sell, purchase, or exchange any archaeological resource if such resource was excavated or removed from public lands or Indian lands" in violation of the act's general restrictions and permitting requirements."

It then goes on to say:

"nothing in subsection (d) of this section shall be deemed applicable to any person with respect to the removal of arrowheads located on the surface of the ground."

Technically it is not permitted to take surface found artifacts from federal land, but the penalties under the ARPA of 1979 are not supposed to apply under the Carter Clause. But the federal government is finding ways to work around the Carter Clause, and prosecute people anyway. Recently, several highly publicized cases have been in the news. In every case, people were arrested, and complete collections were confiscated because it was alleged that they had stolen government property. Granted, some of those prosecuted were committing crimes, and "digging" artifacts on federal land, but not all of them were. So if the government can prove that you picked up an arrowhead on federal property and took it home, you can be fined, go to jail, and forfeit your entire collection. Unless you have the means and time to take on the feds in court, the prudent thing to do would be to avoid artifact collecting on federal land.

Here is a link to the complete ARPA of 1979.

http://www.nps.gov/history/local-law/FHPL_ArchRsrcsProt.pdf

While it will have no effect on an old family collection, several states have created laws to make it illegal to pick up any type of artifact from the ground, including any items older than 100 years. So if you plan on hunting for arrowheads in the future, it would be very wise to check the laws where you plan on hunting.

The federal law that applies to ownership of and/or sales of Native American grave goods is known as NAGPRA, or the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. While this law does not apply to items I deal with, I felt it was important to mention on my web site, because I am occasionally asked to review items that may fall under NAGPRA guidelines. Of course when this happens, I always suggest that any grave related items be immediately turned over to federal authorities.

Projectile points (and lithics in general) are not considered to be grave goods, unless they are documented by the original finder as being found in close proximity to human remains, which is extremely uncommon. Projectile points were tools, and generally were not buried with the deceased. It would be like burying a family member with a hammer, screw driver, or a gun.

NAGPRA was designed to give Native Americans first say on the disposition of the remains of their "ancestors". Since becoming law in 1990, museums from the Smithsonian, down to small local museums have been ordered to turn over any human remains and other grave related items to tribes that lay claim to them. As far as the sale of these items is concerned, under section 1170, subsection (a) it states:

"Whoever knowingly sells, purchases, uses for profit, or transports for sale or profit, the human remains of a Native American without the right of possession to those remains as provided in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act shall be fined in accordance with this title, or imprisoned not more that 12 months, or both, and in the case of a second or subsequent violation, be fined in accordance with this title, or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both."

In my experience, grave items are generally either organic in nature and don't last more than a few decades to a couple centuries, or if there are stone items, they generally are simple beads. There are bone collectors out there, and I want nothing to do with them.

Throughout human history in North America over the last 13,000 years, manufacturing techniques tended to be the same style during various time periods from Paleo to historic times. Determining a tribal affiliation to any kind of lithic artifact is generally impossible, because Native Americans at any given time were usually making the exact same style of projectile point from coast to coast, regardless of what tribe or clan they were associated with. Since Native Americans had no written language, I find their claim to all artifacts strewn across this vast country to be ironic. I wonder how the Irish government would react if I laid claim to all artifacts buried in County Cork where my family came from?
There are literally tens of millions of projectile points and other stone artifacts in personal collections and museums today. Arrowhead collecting is and has been a hobby enjoyed by millions for 200 years or more. Many Native Americans want you to believe that your collections should be returned to their rightful owners. What they fail to mention is that many Native Americans are also collectors, and I am approached frequently by Native Americans with offers to buy artifacts of all kinds. Archaeologists are also collectors. Some of the biggest and best collections I've seen over the last several years were once owned by well respected archaeologists. They do great work, and have greatly increased our knowledge and understanding of North American cultures. But they are human, and most enjoy collecting artifacts too. If they aren't hoarding thousands of artifacts to fill the basements of where they are employed away from the public eye, they're keeping the very best pieces for their personal collections, hoping for a giant windfall when they retire and sell their collections.