ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – A New Mexico tribe is questioning why a ceremonial shield has yet to be returned nearly two years after it was taken off a Paris auction block.

Acoma Pueblo Gov. Kurt Riley told members of Congress on Wednesday that tribal elders are growing impatient waiting for the shield.

The Albuquerque Journal reports Riley was speaking at a hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C.

Riley also talked about the need for the U.S. to have an explicit ban on the export of stolen artifacts.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich has introduced a measure that would prohibit such exports.

The shield was stolen from the pueblo's nearly thousand-year-old village decades ago before emerging recently in an auction house catalogue 18 months ago.

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Information from: Albuquerque Journal, http://www.abqjournal.com