John F . Lacey John Fletcher Lacey ( May 30 , 1841 - September 29 , 1913 ) was an eight - term Republican United States congressman from Iowa ' s 6th congressional district . He was also the author of the Lacey Act of 1900 , which made it a crime to ship illegal game across state lines , and the Lacey Act of 1907 , which further regulated the handling of tribal funds . As the first federal conservation law , the Lacey Act of 1900 remains one of the foundations of conservation law enforcement . Background and Civil War service . Lacey was born in New Martinsville , Virginia ( now West Virginia ) . He moved to Iowa in 1855 with his parents , who settled in Oskaloosa . He attended the common schools and pursued classical studies . He also engaged in agricultural pursuits , and learned the trades of bricklaying and plastering . In the Spring of 1861 , when Lacey was twenty years old , the American Civil War began . Lacey joined an infantry in the Union Army in May 1861 . He initially enlisted in Company H , 3rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment . During his time with the Third Iowa Infantry , he was captured at the Battle of Blue Mills . However , he was soon released on parole . He afterward served as sergeant major in Company D , 33rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment . He was promoted to lieutenant and reassigned to Company C of that regiment , then promoted to assistant adjutant general on the staff of General Frederick Steele . He remained in this position until the end of the war . As the war concluded , he studied law , was admitted to the bar in 1865 , and began to practice law in Oskaloosa . Five years later , he became a member of the Iowa House of Representatives . He was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives for a term beginning in 1870 . He was later elected to the Oskaloosa City Council in 1880 , serving until 1883 . He served one term as city solicitor . Congressional service . In 1888 , he was nominated by the Republican Party to challenge incumbent Greenback Party Congressman James Weaver , who was seeking re - election to his fourth term as representative of Iowa ' s 6th congressional district . Lacey unseated Weaver . Lacey served one term ( as a member of the Fifty - first United States Congress ) , but was defeated in the 1890 Democratic landslide by Democrat Frederick Edward White . Two years later , however , Lacey reclaimed his seat from White , and served seven consecutive terms , as a member of the Fifty - third through the Fifty - ninth Congresses . He served twelve years as the chairman of the Committee on Public Lands , in the Fifty - fourth through Fifty - ninth Congresses . However , in 1906 , when running for a ninth term , Lacey was unseated by Democrat Daniel W . Hamilton . After leaving Congress , Lacey practiced law until his death in Oskaloosa on September 29 , 1913 . The Lacey Act of 1894 . Congressman Lacey was an enthusiastic defender of Yellowstone National Park and in 1894 , in response to the inability of park administrators to punish poachers of the park ' s wildlife , Lacey sponsored legislation to give the Department of Interior authority arrest and prosecute law violators in the park . Although only known as the Lacey Act in the context of Yellowstone National Park , in May 1894 congress passed " An Act To protect the birds and animals in Yellowstone National Park , and to punish crimes in said park , and for other purposes . " which became the cornerstone of future law enforcement policies in the park . The Lacey Act of 1900 . Today , Lacey is most prominently known as the namesake of the Lacey Act of 1900 . The Act , which is codified in as amended at 16 U . S . C . § § 3371 - 3378 , protects both plants and wildlife by creating civil and criminal penalties for a wide array of violations . Most notably , the Act prohibits trade in wildlife , fish , and plants that have been illegally taken , possessed , transported or sold . Congressman Lacey introduced the bill in the spring of 1900 . It was signed into law on May 25 , 1900 by President William McKinley after passing both houses of Congress . The Lacey Act of 1907 . Another major legislative initiative — also known as " The Lacey Act , " but approved in the lame duck session after his 1906 defeat and signed into law in his final week in Congress — made provision for the allotment of tribal funds to certain classes of Indians . These provisions were proposed after the passage of the Burke Act and the Dawes Act , both of which provided for the allotment of reservation lands to individual Indians , but not to communally owned trust funds . After much debate and several opposing arguments , President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill into law on March 2 , 1907 . The Antiquities Act . Lacey is also significant in the history of the conservation movement for his role in writing ( with the help of anthropologist Edgar Lee Hewett ) and enacting the Antiquities Act . The Act has been pivotal to the preservation of major archaeological sites in the Southwestern United States .