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Nez Perce Want To Keep Loaned Artifacts Tribe Will Seek Restraining Order To Retain Ohio Society’s Collection

Associated Press

The Nez Perce Tribe will seek a restraining order to keep the valuable Spalding-Allen Collection of Indian artifacts in Idaho.

For the past 12 years, the collection of 19 Plateau Indian artifacts has been on display at the Nez Perce National Historical Parks visitor center at Spalding, Idaho.

The items have been on loan from the Ohio Historical Society, which acquired them from a descendent of Dudley Allen, who got them from missionary Henry Spalding.

Spalding worked among the Nez Perce in the mid-1800s and sent the items, including beaded dresses and shirts, moccasins, a saddle, cradle and ceremonial pieces, to his friend in Ohio in exchange for other goods.

Earlier this year, the Ohio Historical Society notified the Park Service it wants the collection back. It set a Dec. 31 deadline for return of the items.

Richard Ellenwood of Lapwai, a tribal elder who has headed the effort to keep the collection with the tribe, said the Ohio Historical Society has refused to negotiate a purchase price and has refused to communicate at all with the tribe.

The tribe made an offer to buy the collection at the appraised price of more than $600,000, he said.

But to the tribe, Ellenwood said, the collection’s spiritual and cultural value is priceless.

“The prospect of losing the collection forever has caused broken hearts among tribal members, especially the elders,” Ellenwood said. “It’s a feeling of losing a dear friend … someone we won’t be able to see everyday. It’s like a loss of part of ourselves.There are no Nez Perce living in Ohio.”

The Spalding-Allen Collection Committee has asked the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee to go to court to help keep the collection, Ellenwood said.

NPTEC members agreed and the restraining order will be requested, first from tribal court and then federal court, probably Tuesday, he said. “We’d like to find if they have legal proof of ownership of these things,” Ellenwood said.

The tribe also has been exploring if it has any rights under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Monday, the day the collection is dismantled, will be a day of mourning, according to Ellenwood.

A luncheon is scheduled at noon at the visitors center at Spalding, during which representatives from the National Park and several tribal elders will speak. The visitors center is located on U.S. Highway 95, about 10 miles east of Lewiston.