This day in history: ‘Deep Throat’ was shown in Spokane County Courthouse to determine if was obscene. Tribal members were camped below downtown Spokane for Indian Congress

From 1976: A steamy adult-film screening took place, right in the Spokane County Courthouse.

Visiting Superior Court Judge Philip H. Faris watched two X-rated movies, “Deep Throat” and “Devil in Miss Jones,” in order to determine if they were obscene.

Faris was preparing to rule on whether Eastern Washington State College had “acted wrongly in prohibiting the showing of the movies on campus at a ‘Filthy Film Festival’ ” sponsored by a fraternity.

After the college stepped in and prevented the movies from being screened, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Theta Chi Upsilon fraternity brought a lawsuit contending that it constituted “prior restraint on freedom of speech.”

Faris was not alone during the screening. An assistant state attorney general and the ACLU’s attorney, along with members of the media, were present.

From 1926: Hundreds of tribal members were camped in tepees at Glover Stadium in Peaceful Valley, and hundreds of Spokane residents were visiting the village every day.

“Beautifully painted canvas stretched drum-tight about slender poles of pine – that’s the picturesque setting on the banks of the Spokane River at Glover Stadium,” said a caption of a front -page photo in the Spokane Chronicle.

The tribal members were in Spokane to attend the second annual National Indian Congress.

The Chronicle noted the irony of the scene.

“Not so many years ago a setting such as is seen in the above picture would have caused alarm to be spread among the white people,” said the caption.

Yet it said that now the Indians and “their white brothers are figuring out the Indians problems together.”