Tribes want to save murals

BOISE – After viewing controversial murals in the Ada County Courthouse, slated to temporarily house the Idaho Legislature next year, members of the state’s tribes seemed to agree the paintings should be preserved – just not necessarily where they are now.

North Idaho tribal representatives and lawmakers toured the courthouse Wednesday, part of an unprecedented move by legislators to ask the tribes what to do with the murals, the most contentious of which depicts a Native American man about to be hanged by whites.

Some native members of the Idaho Council on Indian Affairs said the lynching mural, while not based on a specific event in Idaho history, represents the oppression of their ancestors, while another said it is simply offensive.

Chief Allan, chairman of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and council vice chairman, said he favors removing the murals, or at least installing interpretive signs. If a guest came into his house and noticed something offensive, he would take it down, he said.

“It’s the easiest and the right thing to do,” he said. “You just don’t want things in your face.”Shoshone-Bannock Tribes member Lee Juan Tyler said the murals are needed to educate young people but should be put in archives.

“That mural is a part of the truth that really happened here,” said Tyler, who filmed many of the murals during the tour.

While local Idaho historians acknowledge the murals are fictional, they favor keeping them in place. But some lawmakers, such as council Chairman Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, want the “storied pictures” preserved but removed.

“They’re not good paintings” in quality or historical accuracy, Jorgenson said.

Gov. Butch Otter has stopped work on the Statehouse remodel, but construction continues at the courthouse, intended to be home to the Legislature for two years while the Capitol building is expanded.

While lawmakers will ultimately decide how to act, they are committed to listening to the tribes, Jorgenson said.

“I believe the Legislature is trying to do the right thing and not necessarily doing what would be politically correct,” Jorgenson said.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, has said he will defer to native opinions, while Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, has said he supports removing the paintings.

The 26 crudely painted murals, created during the Depression by artists in Los Angeles as part of a Works Progress Administration project, line the main interior stairwell of the old limestone building. They progress from Idaho’s early statehood to the mid-1900s.

The murals were covered with clear plastic Wednesday, but council members crowded around to get a close look.

Originally intended to be mosaics, the murals feature simple scenes. They were also supposed to have plaques explaining them, but those were never added, said Don Watts, preservation planner for the Idaho Historical Society.

“I think that would go miles,” Watts said.

Rebecca Miles, chairwoman of the Nez Perce, said she would defer to members of tribes whose traditional lands included Ada County and who might be depicted in the murals.

She suggested that tribes be involved in writing any interpretive material.

Watts said the murals were meant to be architecture, not art. Because the paintings were done on canvas and glued to the walls, they would be hard to remove, he said.

Watts had not heard estimated costs of removing the murals.

Several council members said it would likely be costly to move them.

Asked if interpretive signs could be added, Watts said some notes from the period exist.

“There’s good guesses, good educated guesses,” he said.

After the tour, Jorgensen asked tribe members to contact him within the next few weeks with their final recommendations.

“I think we were discriminated against because we didn’t get more space,” joked Delbert Farmer, former Shoshone-Bannock chairman.