Congratulations to Janet Catherine Berlo whose book Not Native American Art: Fakes, Replicas, and Invented Traditions has won the 2025 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award, sponsored by the College Art Association (CAA).
Based on decades of research as well as interviews with curators, collectors, restorers, replica makers, reenactors, and Native artists and cultural specialists, Not Native American Art examines the historical and social contexts within which people make replicas and fakes or even invent new objects that then become “traditional.”
Berlo follows the unexpected trajectories of such objects, including Northwest Coast carvings, “Navajo“ rugs made in Mexico, Zuni mask replicas, Lakota-style quillwork, and Mimbres bowl forgeries. With engaging anecdotes, the book offers a rich and nuanced understanding of a surprisingly wide range of practices that makers have used to produce objects that are “not Native American art.”
The Charles Rufus Morey Award, given annually by the CAA, recognizes “an especially distinguished book in the history of art, published in the English language,” and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the discipline.
Janet Catherine Berlo is professor emerita of art history and visual and cultural studies at the University of Rochester. She is editor of The Early Years of Native American Art History and coauthor of Native North American Art, along with many exhibition catalogues over the last four decades.
