State wants tribe council to draft mural explanations

BOISE – Idaho will ask its state Indian Affairs Council, which includes leaders of the state’s five Native American tribes, to propose wording for interpretive plaques to help viewers understand two controversial murals in a state-owned building that will house the next two legislative sessions.

One of the murals, which date back to the 1930s, shows armed white settlers accosting a Native American man, and another shows the settlers preparing to hang the man, who’s on his knees before a noose dangling from a tree.

The Legislative Council voted unanimously Thursday to ask the Indian Affairs Council to draft interpretive language.

“Certainly, we don’t want to offend people, but I’m not sure we can do anything without offending someone any more – even if we do anything from covering them to interpreting them, we may offend somebody,” said Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes, R-Soda Springs.

Geddes noted that the interpretive plaques are in line with recommendations tribal leaders on the Indian Affairs Council made after viewing the murals.

The controversial murals, which are part of a series of Works Projects Administration murals located in the old Ada County Courthouse, don’t depict any particular historic event. They are part of a series painted by Los Angeles artists to illustrate the history of Ada County. The murals, originally intended to be mosaics, are crudely drawn but colorful.

Lawmakers are taking over the old courthouse as a temporary Statehouse, while the state Capitol is renovated over the next two and a half years.

The lynching murals, which are in the courthouse’s main central stairwell, were covered for close to 30 years with giant flags, after a district judge in the courthouse found them offensive.

That judge is now the retiring Idaho Supreme Court chief justice, Gerald Schroeder.

Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said the state may also want to consider interpretive plaques for some of the other murals, such as one that depicts a woman with two right arms.

“I realize that when it comes to art, there are always going to be areas of conflict or concern,” Davis said.

Rep. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said she recently viewed the entire series of murals for the first time and found them better than she expected.

“I actually was kind of impressed with the artwork,” she said.

“The colors are good. … The lines are simple.”

Adding interpretive plaques, she said, would be “appropriate” to address the lynching scenes.

Geddes said, “I noticed this morning there was a school class there looking at the murals. … It’s an issue we need to get resolved.”