Nez Perce Tribe: We are committed to preventing the Clearwater and Lochsa River from becoming an industrial corridor

The Nez Perce Tribe opposes the Clearwater and Lochsa River corridor becoming an industrial corridor, and has repeatedly made this known, according to a news release the Tribe issued last week.

The Tribe peacefully protested mega-load traffic in 2013 and simultaneously pursued a successful action in federal court enjoining mega-load traffic from the wild and scenic corridor of U.S. Highway 12 within the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest. 

The injunction issued by Judge Winmill in 2013 remains in place until the U.S. Forest Service completes an impact study and consults on a government-to-government basis with the Nez Perce Tribe. 

ITD’s recently proposed rule regarding 129,000-pound oversize shipments is, according to the press release, no different from the agency’s position prior to the 2013 federal court injunction.

“It does not alter the reality that the legal issues at stake are federal in nature, are the subject of a federal court lawsuit that resulted in a federal court injunction, and are subject to on-going federal court mediation. At a minimum, ITD’s proposed rule is at this time ineffectual,” states the press release.

ITD made no effort to contact the Nez Perce Tribe or the U.S. Forest Service before unilaterally proposing this rule, states the press release.

The Forest Service, the Tribe, and Idaho Rivers United are engaged in mediation under the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ mediation program.

The Forest Service, the Tribe, and ITD–which was invited into the mediation in 2015–are all bound by confidentiality from disclosing those discussions; however, the Tribe strongly disagrees with ITD’s characterization of the mediation in its FAQ accompanying this rulemaking. 

“The Tribe is committed to continuing to protect the Clearwater-Lochsa river corridor, and to working with the U.S. Forest Service and others regardless, whether ITD chooses to do so or not,” states the press release.

The Tribe will not comment at ITD’s hearing on the proposed rule, but it will submit comments on the proposed rulemaking in writing by Oct. 14.

Cultural items reunited with Nez Perce Tribe

Nearly four decades after a highway project unearthed them, a lengthy curation project has repatriated several sets of Native American human remains with the Nez Perce Tribe, along with several thousand artifacts and related documents from north-central Idaho. 

These items represent a small part of the project carried out by Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) partners at the Archaeological Survey of Idaho, Northern Repository (ASINR), located at the University of Idaho.

The human remains and associated objects were excavated in association with the development of the Lenore Rest Area, located on U.S. Highway 12, approximately 27 miles east of Lewiston. That work occurred between 1967 and 1972, and is located within the Nez Perce Indian Reservation.

Dr. Leah Evans-Janke, Archaeological Collections manager at ASINR, points out that they have more than 750 collections in their facility with over 100 different owners. 

“Of all the state and federal agencies who store collections here, ITD is among the most conscientious and responsive we have ever worked with,” said Evans-Janke.

“All of their collections in our facility meet or exceed federal curatorial mandates. The work that we have most recently completed represented a significant commitment by ITD, and serves as acknowledgement of an agency’s responsibility to the collections generated by their work. Providing support for the repatriation work allows us to carry out some of the most important work we will ever do at the repository,” said Evans-Janke.

The identification of human remains and related items presented ITD with new obligations, but also new opportunities to address ITD’s archaeological curation issues. Click here for a picture of ITD Archaeologist Marc Munch talking with an ASINR employee during a recent visit.

“The repatriation of these cultural items to the Nez Perce Tribe has strengthened the working relationship between the Tribe and ITD, and we are pleased these items have been returned,” Munch said.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of November 1990 requires federal and state agencies, along with museums and other institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American “cultural items” to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. Cultural items include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony. 

After the excavation of the remains and artifacts, the collections sat in a backlog at the ASINR until approximately 2005, when ITD began to provide funding for curating and rehabilitation of all of their excavated collections. When human remains were identified in the collections, ASINR staff members, with ITD support and oversight, embarked on the process of inspecting every item to determine if it was a candidate for repatriation.

Research of the collections revealed a strong relationship with the Nez Perce Tribe, and the official consultation process began in 2013. Tribal representatives traveled to the ASINR to help review artifacts and other objects for inclusion in the repatriation. Once the inventory was completed and approved by the Nez Perce Tribe, ITD and ASINR drafted a notice for publication in the Federal Register announcing their intent to repatriate the cultural items.

At the end of the mandatory 30-day period, no other tribe came forward with a claim. With the process completed, the Nez Perce Tribe was officially in control of the remains of Nez Perce ancestors for the first time in decades.

Nez Perce Tribe awards over $378,000 to area schools and colleges

Nez Perce Tribe Local Education Fund Awards totaling $378,783 were granted to 35 social, cultural, preschool, elementary, high school, and college programs throughout the region.

Funds were awarded for: computer technology, school readiness and social support, special instruction, preschool and kindergarten instruction, language, culture, arts, theater, dance, internships, and literacy programs, among other service areas.

“This year, the range of program applications was impressive,” stated Silas Whitman, Chairman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee. “We were able to have an impact on core curriculum with our computer and science lab awards. We funded programs that will help area children perform at their grade level through kindergarten and preschool support. We also funded stellar creative arts programs such as the Mentor Artist’s Playwrights Project, which will bring high caliber writers to the classroom. ”

“This broad range of support will help young people prepare to enter the world stage with a sound fundamental education, along with a wealth of cultural experiences,” Whitman concluded. Since the fund was established in 2004, over 3.5 million dollars have been granted to area educational, social, and professional programs.

The Local Education Program Fund Awards are funded through revenue derived from gaming enterprises operated by the Nez Perce Tribe.

The grant program provides financial assistance to education programs and schools located on or near the Nez Perce Reservation with the ultimate goal of “improving the mind, speech, manner, capability, and character of skills of the human populace.”

 

Clearwater County area awards

Cavendish Teakean Elementary Cultural Field Trips: $1,000. This program takes children to places such as Spalding Museum, Fossil Bowl, WSU Art Museum, WSU Raptor Program, Pullman Science Center, and the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.

Clearwater Memorial Public Library’s “A Book Under Every Pillow” Initiative: $1,000. Books will be given to children through the third grade level to encourage reading over Christmas break.

Lapwai and Orofino Upward Bound: $5,000. The program will help high school students in Lapwai and Orofino to enroll and be successful in dual enrollment college courses.

Lewis Clark Early Childhood Education Program: $10,000. This award will help to complete a building and facilities project to benefit Head Start preschool students.

Orofino Junior High School: $10,000. Funds will be used to update science lab equipment, purchase art supplies, and buy reading material.

Tribal Fisheries Intern: $5,000. Tribal Fisheries high school and college interns work with production project leaders and key staff to learn fish culture, fish health and fisheries sciences. Interns are employed at Dworshak/Kooskia National Fish Hatcheries, Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery, and numerous satellite facilities. The program goal is to impart the technical and professional experience needed to succeed in college.

Youth Career Education Institute: $10,000. The Youth Career Education Institute will offer a variety of programming activities to address career preparedness for 20 youth who reside and attend public schools on or near the Nez Perce Reservation.

Replacement of bridge on Orofino Creek launches deeper investigation into the region’s history

Clearwater County, with the assistance of the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) and the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council, plans to replace the Orofino Creek Road Bridge. The bridge replacement project is subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, because it will received federal funding through the Federal Highway Administration.

Section 106 requires federally assisted projects to take into account their effects on historic properties included in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. So in 2012, ITD performed a pedestrian survey of the project area.

An initial cultural resources investigation identified a pre-contact (short term occupation) lithic (debitage) scatter site in the project’s area of potential effect (APE)). Debitage is the collective term used by archaeologists to refer to the sharp-edged waste material left over when someone creates a stone tool (knaps flint). Some of the waste flakes may be used as tools themselves, as expedient scrapers for example, but by and large the word debitage refers to those pieces which have not been utilized.

Testing the vertical and horizontal extent, content, and integrity of the site within the APE was recommended and SWCA was contracted to complete the evaluation as a result of consultation between the ITD and the Nez Perce Tribe.

Twenty-one shovel probes and three test units were excavated in and around the site along the road. Cultural materials were discovered between 0 and 138 centimeters (or 54.3 inches) below the surface in three of the 21 probes and in the test units. After careful examination of the artifacts found archeologists believe the site was used repeatedly for short periods of time, most likely as one of the Nezperce camps where activities focused on the hunting and processing of animal resources.

The site was recommended as eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Accordingly, Clearwater County will take whatever measures necessary to avoid any adverse effects to the site.

From a local perspective

The people who lived on the property in question were in no way surprised to learn of the research to be carried out in their neck of the woods. Violet Bruce and her husband, moved to the area in 1949 and purchased the property which is adjacent to Orofino Creek Bridge to make there home, which is where the archeological tests were performed.

Neighboring residents who were more familiar with the area informed them that the Nez Perce were known to have frequently camped in the vicinity of their property. Various arrowheads and pieces of other elements resembling cultural artifacts surfaced as the Bruces settled in and established their garden and orchard, confirming the information shared by neighbors who had lived in the area over several generations.

Throughout the years, various items of interest have revealed themselves, but perhaps the most obvious and intact artifact discovered was a sizeable tool most likely used as a pestle for grinding, found by Violet Bruce in their orchard.

Brandy Rinke, with SWCA Environmental Consultants, explained “This project has followed the Section 106 process and is a good example of positive relationships between private landowners, the ITD, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the County. SWCA is especially grateful to the Bruce family for allowing us to access their property and for the history they shared with us.”

Perhaps the most obvious and intact artifact discovered was a sizeable tool most likely used as a pestle for grinding, found by Violet Bruce in their orchard.

One of 21 shovel probes excavated to the depth of impenetrable cobbles, excavated in and around the site along the road. 

The Orofino Creek Bridge soon to be replaced is subject to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, because it will receive federal funding through the Federal Highway Administration.
 

The north wall profile of one test unit showing the layers of soil and its distribution and composition. Testing the vertical and horizontal extent, content, and integrity of the site within the area of potential effect was recommended. The dark layer beginning about 110 centimeters below the modern surface is an old buried soil surface and artifacts were identified throughout the profile to about 140 centimeters or 54 inches deep – the black/red and white sticks are divided in 10 cm increments.

The artifacts shown above were recovered in the latest tests performed at the site. The fragments have been modified to illustrate how the original object appeared when it was first made/used.

Megaloads: Opposing viewpoints

Against: By Ron Hanes, Orofino

Why can’t the Nez Perce Indians get over it? Some in the community are saying: Just shut up. They lost the war, so how can they claim to have rights we whites don’t have? How can a defeated people assert legal authority when it comes to the passage of mega-loads over US Highway 12?

A little history: The first treaty between the U.S. and the Nez Perce people was signed in 1855. Even though the Nez Perce population had been significantly reduced by “white man diseases” which had traveled up the Columbia well before Lewis and Clark stumbled onto the Weippe Prairie, in 1855, the regional population consisted of around 10,000 Nez Perce and their allies and fewer than 2000 non-Indians.

Though the Nez Perce considered eliminating the whites, a fairly easy task estimated to take less than a month, they chose instead to keep the peace, not from a position of weakness but from one of power and consent. Their chiefs signed the treaty. This treaty, with the full backing of the United States Constitution, assured the Nez Perce people they would retain and control approximately 90% of their existing land holdings. Non-Natives were not allowed to reside within the 1855 reservation boundaries.

With the discovery of gold near the present town of Pierce came a surge of miners from the played-out California gold fields. Rag Town, a tent city appeared “overnight” without legal authorization where Lewiston now sits. —part of the Nez Perce reservation. Nez Perce pleas to remove the trespassers went unanswered. Soon thousands of miners flooded the reservation.

The U.S. government’s solution: force a new treaty on the Nez Perce with trickery and deceit mainly so their gold could help finance the Civil War. The Treaty of 1863 further reduced Nez Perce holdings by 90%, while leaving most of the other language of the 1855 treaty intact and control in the hands of the Nez Perce.

The Nez Perce War of 1877 hardly qualifies as a war. Only some of the Nez Perce participated and most of the non-combatants continued to live on the reservation. As easterners learned of the mistreatment of the Indians, many became critical and the U.S. Army hoped the truth of how the Nez Perce had been provoked into battle would just go away. And it did, unless you were Nez Perce.

There had been no declaration of war in 1877 and there were no peace accords or new treaties at its conclusion. Nez Perce sovereignty remained as the U.S. Government soon violated even the terms of surrender. So, please tell me again why the Nez Perce should be silent?

Current mega-load mover, Omega Morgan, probably doesn’t know or care about the long history of broken promises to the Nez Perce Nation. Omega Morgan probably doesn’t know or care that, if the Nez Perce had not generously assisted the starving early 19th century Corps of Discovery, all lands north of the Columbia River (most of Washington) would likely have been claimed by England and would be part of Canada today.

Omega Morgan probably doesn’t know or care that the Nez Perce people have always attempted to get along with non-Natives, providing assistance that saved many early day travelers. Omega Morgan probably doesn’t know or care that it was the Nez Perce’ gold that helped support the Union during the Civil War but cost the Nez Perce their homeland.

Omega Morgan probably doesn’t know or care about all that ancient but relevant history or the ongoing tribal contributions to area schools, youth programs and infrastructure projects of today.

Omega Morgan probably doesn’t know or care about the ignorance with which they are equated in view of the damage they have inflicted upon the effort to build better relationships between non-native residents and the Nez Perce Tribe where there is common ground, bridge building, respect, and decisions are shared that affect all local people.

Omega Morgan has the might and money of GE, Exxon, and other mega-corporations behind them. This proved irresistible to Idaho officials and local business interests. Omega Morgan executives must be puzzled that the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Council was not similarly persuaded, so it simply swept aside their treaty rights while thumbing their noses at a U.S. federal agency and federal law.

Omega Morgan is yet another outsider whose motives are profit and exploitation of the earth’s riches, and like Lewis and Clark over 200 years ago and the miners in 1860, have imposed upon the hospitality of our Nez Perce neighbors.

The next time a mega-load tries to pass through their reservation without so much as tribal consultation and federal due process, the Nez Perce will likely protest. If they do it is their right, an acknowledgement of a painful history and an exercise of their legacy as the first stewards of this land. If there are those who cannot be respectful and understand, perhaps it is they who would do well to take their own advice. 

For: By Charlie Pottenger, Lewiston

America achieved greatness because the principles upon which it was founded released the creativeness to develop ideas which resulted in products and services we all enjoy. As people started farms and businesses which produce products which we all need and enjoy it became necessary to develop transportation systems to move these goods from producers to users. As a result we the people supported the creation of road systems, waterways, and airways to enhance the commerce which is the source of the jobs we all need to support our families.

U. S. Highway 12 was built to facilitate the movement of products from this region and the east of the mountains areas of Montana and Dakotas. Those products then economically could interface with westbound water traffic to the Far East, either at Lewiston or other West Coast ports. The use of the Highway by residents and tourists is a by-product of the basic purpose, which is to promote job related, job essential commerce.

I drive Highway 12 almost daily and after numerous megaload shipments cannot see any evidence of damage to road or environment. The risk of environmental damage is a carefully created myth designed to create unwarranted fears. The megaload trucks carry no more fuel than standard trucks and have a lower tire loading than standard rigs.

If we cannot support the use of highways for commerce we are killing jobs and increasing our cost of living. More oil anywhere in the world, available to the world's users, will lower prices everywhere. More oil in North America will create North American jobs and lower energy prices. If we oppose megaloads we are guaranteeing we shall have fewer jobs and higher prices for all goods, as energy is a key cost factor in all products and services.

I, for one, support safe utilization of our highways for all users and entrust the regulation to the Idaho Department of Transportation. If the anti-Megaload faction have their way the American economy will continue its decline and jobs will be destroyed.

New young adult book depicts authentic Nez Perce story

The first young adult book from Washington State University (WSU) Press, Be Brave, Tah-hy!: The Journey of Chief Joseph’s Daughter, is unlike many popular and historical novels written for adolescents, because the protagonist is not portrayed as a modern heroine. Instead, her thoughts and actions are appropriate for a girl of her age, time and background.

Author Jack Williams, a Colorado native, worked and lived on the Nez Perce Reservation in northern Idaho from 1969 through 1974. During that time, several tribal members, hoping to correct errors and misconceptions from previous accounts as well as educate future generations about their history and culture, approached him with an idea for a book.

Begun in the 1970s and revised numerous times but never published, the project could not be undertaken today. The author worked closely with elders and cultural demonstrators to reconstruct Tah-hy’s story as accurately as possible—some contributors had heard accounts directly from relatives who experienced the 1877 war and its consequences first-hand.

A chance encounter between Williams and Native American artist Jo Proferes resulted in an enduring affiliation, and she illustrated the text with exquisite pen and ink drawings as well as twenty large oil paintings. The canvases were displayed at the 1976 Nez Perce Bicentennial Exhibit.

Now in his late eighties, Williams shared the completed manuscript with a friend. That ally, retired from a lengthy career in publishing, was so impressed he would not rest until he saw it in print. He insisted Williams submit the story to WSU Press. Staff members and the editorial board decided to publish it—despite its young adult focus—because the content is relevant to their core editorial program and to the university. (The institution houses author and historian Lucullus V. McWhorter’s extensive collection of Nez Perce artifacts and photographs.)

Based on actual events and narrated by Tah-hy’s youthful voice, Be Brave, Tah-hy! begins with the announcement that Chief Joseph and his people would be forced to relinquish their homeland and relocate.

A few weeks later, on June 17, 1877, the twelve-year-old heard the gunfire that marked the start of war—one that swept the Nez Perce into a harrowing journey across the American West.

Relentlessly pursued, they endured multiple battles, cold, hunger, and death. The biographical novel also covers their escape to Canada and their time with the Lakota and Chief Sitting Bull. It continues with their return to Lapwai and a new life under the influence of missionaries and Agent John Monteith.

Be Brave, Tah-hy! is available at bookstores or can be ordered from WSU Press by calling 800-354-7360 or online at wsupress.wsu.edu.

WSU Press is associated with Washington State University located in Pullman, WA, and publishes scholarly books with a cultural or historical relationship to the Pacific Northwest.