Nez Perce Tribal Leaders Heading For Ohio Tribe Trying Last-Minute Effort To Keep Artifacts In Idaho
Racing the ticking clock, Nez Perce tribal leaders will travel to Ohio next week to try to prevent a valuable collection of Nez Perce artifacts from leaving an Idaho museum.
“The items originated here,” said Sam Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce tribal executive committee. “They rightfully belong here.”
Penney will make that argument on Tuesday to several top officials from the Ohio Historical Society. The society’s board of directors meets Dec. 15.
The society owns 19 Nez Perce artifacts valued five years ago at $583,000. After 16 years on display at a visitors’ center in Spalding, Idaho, the artifacts are scheduled to go back to Ohio Dec. 15.
Presbyterian Rev. Henry Spalding bought the items from the tribe during the 1840s. He sent them to his friend Dudley Allen, an Ohio physician. Allen’s descendants apparently turned the collection over to Oberlin College, who then gave it to the historical society.
The historical society says it wants to inspect and do preservation work on the clothing, bags, saddle and horsehair ropes from the 1840s. Tribal elders fear the objects - believed to be the oldest known Nez Perce artifacts in existence - will never return to Idaho.
On Nov. 29, the tribe sent a letter to the Ohio society offering to buy the collection by June - provided the artifacts stay in Idaho until then.
The tribe has also received support from Gov. Phil Batt, who recently urged Ohio’s governor to discuss a sale of the artifacts to the tribe. On Nov. 20, Batt’s office sent the tribe a letter suggesting the historical society’s board of trustees is willing to discuss a sale “at some reduction from market value.”
The tribe says it recently discovered a March 1970 letter in which an official of Oberlin College - the former owner of the collection - promised to return the objects to Spalding.
Penney said Wednesday that tribal leaders hope to use that letter as leverage to keep the objects from being shipped back to Ohio.
Bob Chenoweth, a National Park Service employee who is curator of the collection, said a moving company will arrive Dec. 14 to take the artifacts unless a deal is struck. The van will leave Dec. 15.
“We’ll be talking about the significance - culturally, historically and emotionally - that these artifacts have to the Nez Perce,” said Penney, referring to the meeting in Ohio.
“Hopefully, if we can sit down together and discuss these issues, we can work these things out,” said Penney.
, DataTimes