Testimony: ‘Show the history,’ ‘Try to sweep history under the rug,’ ‘Story of subjugation’

More testimony at today’s public forum on controversial historic murals:

Buster Gibson , vice chairman of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe, said, “We support the display of the murals, in order to show the history that has happened.” He said the tribe believes children need to know their cultural history and where they came from.

Ted Howard , cultural resources director for the Shoshone-Paiutes, said, “We can try to sweep history under the rug, try to hide it, but it is what it is. We cannot change it. What’s happened has happened.” He said both the people of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes lived in the Boise Valley and were removed from it after gold was discovered in the area and sent to their current reservations; their language is the same. “There were quite a few Indian people hung on Eagle Island, just down the river here,” he said. “So there were these kinds of things that happened. It’s difficult to talk about, especially among our people.” He said his grandmother told stories of bounties being offered for the scalps of Native Americans: $100 for a man, $50 for a woman, $25 for a child. “We’re still here,” he said. “It may not be pleasant to talk about, but these are things that happened.

Howard said with all due respect to those from other Native American tribes in other states who have spoken today, “I think the disposition of these murals should be between the affiliated tribes of this area and the state of Idaho. … We support leaving the murals there, and I think we need to further discuss whatever kind of interpretive language that we may agree upon.”

Shaakirrah Sanders , a law professor at the University of Idaho who teaches classes at the new Idaho Law & Justice Learning Center, said, “I think that these are a poor effort to reflect the history of the atrocities against Native Americans.” The lynching scenes are part of a series of murals that show happy settlers arriving and settling in Idaho, being threatened by fierce Native American warriors, and then, in the scenes in question, don’t show the face of the man being lynched. She called that a “classic technique of art to deny the humanity” by not showing a face. “In my opinion the story that is told in these murals is one of subjugation,” Sanders said. “These murals send a message to Native Americans to learn their place.”