A Denali-area clothing store has been fined over $50,000 after claiming to sell products made from Yakutat alpaca, which don’t exist. KCAW’s Meredith Redick spoke with Alaska Beacon’s James Brooks about the mythical mammal that raised red flags for state investigators, and the broader trend of fake souvenirs that claim to be made in Alaska.
KCAW: Give us a basic summary of what happened here.
BROOKS: One of the things that’s in state law is something that says something that’s labeled as “Made in Alaska” actually has to be made in Alaska. And in this case, investigators got a tip that a shop outside Denali National Park was selling products that were made in Alaska, or at least that’s what the owners said. And in some of the cases, they were saying that their wool products were made from alpaca wool from Yakutat. And as anybody who lives in Yakutat knows, there’s just not any alpacas there.
KCAW: Okay, so Yakutat alpacas. Can you give us more detail about what exactly was happening in this shop?
BROOKS: So in the case of this store, outside Denali National Park, the folks were apparently importing things from Asia, importing things from Nepal, wool products, and taking off the labels and then putting on “Made in Alaska” labels.
KCAW: So for someone in Southeast, I think “Yakutat alpacas” would immediately raise a red flag. Are they able to do this more easily because the shop is targeted towards tourists?
BROOKS: I imagine this kind of thing would have been caught quickly had it been in – or at least more quickly – had it been in Southeast Alaska, where it’s pretty clear that there’s not any alpacas around here. But in this case, it seems like it was caught fairly quickly. The Department of Law sent an undercover investigator, who overheard them talking with prospective customers. And then they came back the next month, and he was greeted immediately at the door by one of the proprietors who said without prompting, “You are in the truly tribal store of Alaska from Yakutat.” And so that seems like it’s a pretty blatant claim.
KCAW: So they had wool that they were saying was made from Yakutat alpacas. They also had other things like decorative ponchos, right?
BROOKS: Yeah, exactly. Things that really, if you’ve been in Alaska, look more like things from the Lower 48 or even from South America, more than from Alaska.
KCAW: Tell me about what happened to the shop. After the investigation, what kinds of fines did they have to pay?
BROOKS: So the shop will end up paying, according to the settlement agreement, $53,000 to the state, and that’ll be spread out over several years. And in addition to that, the shop has to notify the state, if it’s selling any products being made in Alaska, they have to provide advance notice to the state and include details about the product, and a whole bunch of other things that will be particularly time-consuming for this store to do. And that agreement will last five years. So they’re effectively on probation for five years, in addition to having to pay the fine.
KCAW: James, what are the practical consequences of something like this? Why is the state putting energy into finding these stores?
BROOKS: When I’ve talked with federal officials in the past, they said the reason for cracking down on things like this is that it can harm actual tribal artists. If people are importing things cheaply from overseas and trying to pass them off as actual Alaska-made products, that degrades the market for tribally-made artifacts and things and crafts that are made by people who live here. Those tend to be more expensive, because they’re handmade. They take time, they take practice to get good at this. And so if people are selling knockoffs, that’s money that’s being taken away from Alaskans and Alaska communities.
KCAW: And, James, you mentioned a trend. Just how widespread do we think this problem is in Alaska?
BROOKS: That’s a big question. We don’t know. We don’t have hard figures on how big the market is for illegitimate “Made in Alaska” products. We know it exists. And we know that as the number of tourists coming to Alaska increases, the market for those products will increase as well, which is why it’s important for the state and federal officials to keep cracking down.
