Tribal Ties To Ancestors Renewed Artifacts From Burial Site Returned To Tribe

In the summer of 1949, an anthropology graduate student from the University of Washington laid open the earth along the banks of Lake Coeur d’Alene near North Idaho College.

Tom Miller also was teaching at NIC when he uncovered the remains from four Coeur d’Alene Indians buried here, undisturbed for centuries. In 1992, those bones finally were returned to the tribe.

Just four weeks ago, some 100 arrowheads, tools, stone flakes and copper beads that Miller had found with the bodies also were repatriated after four decades of collecting dust in Museum of North Idaho storage.

In addition, a private collector came forward on April 19 to give back a pair of knives, dozens of arrowheads and a pestle and mortar she had gathered from sites around the lake and the Spokane River.

Getting these things back after all these years feels good, said Dixie Saxon, a member of the tribe’s cultural affairs committee.

“The ties are strong, and the disrespect of our people really hurt,” Saxon said. “They are our ancestors, and we have a thinking that goes way back. We’re the descendants of those artifacts.”

The return of native artifacts across the U.S. is a relatively new phenomenon. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed in 1990, and Indians since then have been able to petition museums to hand over portions of their Native American collections. Recent returns are particularly important to the Coeur d’Alenes because items traced to the tribe are so rare.

Kathy Arneson, a Museum of North Idaho volunteer and anthropologist of native Northwest cultures at Lewis-Clark State College, began documenting the Miller collection’s origins last May. She soon realized that many of the items were likely to have been unearthed from burial sites alongside the skeletons.

According to the Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, tribes can reclaim items recovered from burial sites, as well as funerary objects, sacred objects, and items which define a tribe’s culture. In this instance, the museum returned the artifacts voluntarily, perhaps an indication of just how times have changed.

“The methods and rationale were quite different when Tom Miller was working,” Arneson said, explaining that once Miller left NIC, much of what was known about the bones went with him. “The documentation was not what it would be today.”

The human remains returned five years ago were reburied by the tribe on the reservation. According to Saxon, these accompanying artifacts now will be stored at Coeur d’Alene tribal headquarters. Some of them eventually may become a part of a proposed cultural heritage center in Plummer like the one the Nez Perce Tribe has in Lapwai.

A centerpiece of that Nez Perce exhibition is the Henry Spalding collection. A handful of 150-year-old dresses, hemp bags, and moccasins had been purchased in the mid-1800s by the Presbyterian missionary for $57.90, and then shipped back east. The Nez Perce bought them back for $608,100 in 1996.

None of the items returned to the Coeur d’Alenes last month were as remarkable as the Spalding collection. They were pestles, knives and fishing weights - the implements of everyday existence. Interesting, but certainly not flashy.

But with Coeur d’Alene artifacts such a rare find these days, even stone flakes or rough tools become important.

“Anytime these items are returned to the tribe, it’s a milestone,” said Lynn Pankonin, curator of American Indian collections at Spokane’s Cheney Cowles Museum. “Every object that was made by any person in any tribe is an extension of that person. That’s why it’s important.”

Cheney Cowles took over an extensive collection from the now-closed Museum of Native American Cultures in 1992, but Pankonin discovered few artifacts with documented origins among the Coeur d’Alenes. Tribal leaders also have reviewed the MONAC collection, but found nothing they could take back with them under provisions of the Graves and Repatriation Act.

Even local Indian artifact traders say it’s virtually impossible to find outstanding representations of Coeur d’Alene tribal culture. Tragically, many of these things have practically disappeared.

“I don’t know if the Coeur d’Alene Tribe has it stashed somewhere, or if it’s just all gone, but there’s very little Coeur d’Alene stuff out there,” said Jeb Taylor, a St. Maries collector who specializes in artifacts from Oregon tribes, which he sells in mail-order catalogues.

Others also wonder.

“I haven’t seen anything for five years or so,” said Bill Wood, who runs the Great Northwest Fur and Trading Post in Cocolalla. “I remember a couple of old ladies coming in a few years ago with beaded leather bags. But I don’t even deal with any old Indian items anymore.”

Wood offered a number of explanations why Coeur d’Alene tribal artifacts aren’t as prevalent as those from the Spokanes or the Nez Perce. For one, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe wasn’t as receptive to white people as tribes to the south were, he said, so traders may have skirted this area for the friendlier Nez Perce homelands. And with so many similarities in Salish culture, it also can be difficult to distinguish whether an item is Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, or even Yakama in origin, he said.

Arneson, who also conducts anthropological surveys for the U.S. Forest Service at ancient Indian sites, said there are other reasons for the dearth of Coeur d’Alene artifacts here.

The Jesuits who did missionary work around Coeur d’Alene showed less of a collecting fervor than did their Protestant counterparts to the south. As well, the region’s acidic soil quickly destroyed most ornate leather or cloth items that might have been buried, Arneson.

Still, the tribe worries about the continued threat of fortune hunters disturbing burial sites around Lake Coeur d’Alene and along the Spokane River as they search for artifacts. Too often, the result is destruction.

And although the return of the private collection of knives, arrowheads, and a grinding tool last month is good news, it happens all too rarely.

“Most people maybe don’t know to return the artifacts,” said Dixie Saxon, explaining that the tribe lacks the resources to actively pursue the return of artifacts, even if it knew where to look. “Maybe the word just needs to get out, for people to give them back.”

Jeanne Givens, a prominent member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and a North Idaho College trustee, is puzzled as to why people would want to have the artifacts in the first place.

“I don’t see how people can derive any satisfaction from having a sacred pipe sitting on their fireplace.”

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