How did a priceless Nez Perce collection from Idaho end up in Ohio?

April 16, 2024 10:07 AM

And why did it take over a century for the collection to return home? "A testament not only to our resilience, but to other people’s acknowledgment of basic humanity." A story about a collection of artifacts returning to its appropriate home with a surprisingly heartwarming coda. Video interviews about the collection and its voyage, and breathtaking images from the Wetxuuwíitin’ collection.

Something else remarkable happened as a result of the ceremony. The tribe invited the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest and the Ohio Historical Society (now called the Ohio History Connection or OHC) to attend. This invitation took OHC officials by surprise. When I spoke with Alex Wesaw, OHC director of tribal relations and an enrolled member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, he said the invitation was the first time he and OHC Chief Executive Officer Burt Logan had heard about the sale of the artifacts to the tribe.

“We asked everyone who we thought might know something about it, and no one knew anything. So it was pretty shocking.” OHC decided to return $608,100 to the Nez Perce Tribe. On November 23, 2021, Logan, board member Billy Friend, who is chief of the Wyandotte Nation, and Wesaw presented a check to Sam Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe Executive Committee (Penney also served as chairman 25 years earlier during the repatriation). “We were unanimous,” said Friend. “We felt like we ought to give the money back to them, because it was the right thing to do.”

posted by bq (5 comments total)

That's very moving. Thanks for sharing.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:30 AM on April 16

Here is a local documentary about the Lapwai high school basketball teams and their domination of state basketball through embracing their tribal identities and practices. Might provide more context of the current Nimiipuu peoples.
posted by Uncle at 11:40 AM on April 16

I hope whoever insisted on being paid to give back stolen goods in 1992 is suitably embarrassed now.
posted by Karmakaze at 1:39 PM on April 16 [1 favorite]

I read this as pince nes and was expecting glasses. I made a spectacle of myself.
posted by Czjewel at 1:58 PM on April 16 [3 favorites]

I was wondering why the collection wasn't returned under the requirements of NAGPRA, but it looks like the majority of the collection wasn't funerary items (or cultural items) as defined in the law. It's good that it was returned, and that the Ohio Historic Connection returned the money as well.
posted by suelac at 11:40 AM on April 17