Post by blackcrowheart on Dec 29, 2005 10:01:46 GMT -5
Nez Perce warriors buried
The Associated Press
www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20051226/NEWS06/51226037/1001
SPALDING, Idaho — Two Nez Perce warriors were buried in northcentral
Idaho on Friday and Saturday, more than a century after they died in
the 1877 Battle of the Big Hole.
Since that battle, their remains have been stored at the Smithsonian
Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
A warrior whose name isn't known was buried Friday in the tiny
Spalding Cemetery next to the Nez Perce National Historical Park.
A day later, the skull of Pahkatos Owyeen, or Five Wounds, was buried
next to his son, William Jackson, at the tribal cemetery in Lapwai,
two miles from Spalding near the Clearwater River.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990
gave tribes the right to reclaim ancestral remains, sacred objects
and other cultural treasures from federal museums and agencies.
Horace Axtell, a Nez Perce elder and tribal spiritual leader, led a
tribal delegation to Washington, D.C., last week to retrieve the
remains.
"It's very uncomfortable to all of us to have to go through these
things," Axtell said, according to the Lewiston Tribune. Still, "we
have to do what the ancestors taught us to do, which is bring back
the remains."
In 1877, about 750 non-treaty Nez Perce — led by Chief Joseph — fled
Idaho to avoid the Army's demand that the tribe move onto a
reservation that was just a fraction the size of the traditional Nez
Perce homeland in Idaho and northeastern Oregon, according to the
National Park Service.
The reservations were meant to contain the Indians — and free up most
of their ancestral territory for white settlers.
The unknown Nez Perce warrior and Pahkatos Owyeen were among as many
as 90 Indians who were killed Aug. 9, 1877, at a site near the Big
Hole River in present-day Montana. Twenty-two soldiers, a civilian
guide, and five civilian volunteers also were killed, the Park
Service said.
Two months later, most of the Nez Perce surrendered near the Canadian
border.
At Friday's ceremony in Spalding, more than two dozen people attended
the burial, including U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, both
Idaho Republicans.
Reservation government and spiritual leaders, who were on hand
attempted to describe the significance of the event as other tribal
members sang burial songs.
According to Axtell, the unknown Nez Perce already had been dug up
from a burial site before it was taken to Washington, D.C., in the
late 19th century.
"I don't have the words for that," Axtell said, shaking his head. "We
disagree with it very much."
The Associated Press
www.theolympian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20051226/NEWS06/51226037/1001
SPALDING, Idaho — Two Nez Perce warriors were buried in northcentral
Idaho on Friday and Saturday, more than a century after they died in
the 1877 Battle of the Big Hole.
Since that battle, their remains have been stored at the Smithsonian
Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
A warrior whose name isn't known was buried Friday in the tiny
Spalding Cemetery next to the Nez Perce National Historical Park.
A day later, the skull of Pahkatos Owyeen, or Five Wounds, was buried
next to his son, William Jackson, at the tribal cemetery in Lapwai,
two miles from Spalding near the Clearwater River.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990
gave tribes the right to reclaim ancestral remains, sacred objects
and other cultural treasures from federal museums and agencies.
Horace Axtell, a Nez Perce elder and tribal spiritual leader, led a
tribal delegation to Washington, D.C., last week to retrieve the
remains.
"It's very uncomfortable to all of us to have to go through these
things," Axtell said, according to the Lewiston Tribune. Still, "we
have to do what the ancestors taught us to do, which is bring back
the remains."
In 1877, about 750 non-treaty Nez Perce — led by Chief Joseph — fled
Idaho to avoid the Army's demand that the tribe move onto a
reservation that was just a fraction the size of the traditional Nez
Perce homeland in Idaho and northeastern Oregon, according to the
National Park Service.
The reservations were meant to contain the Indians — and free up most
of their ancestral territory for white settlers.
The unknown Nez Perce warrior and Pahkatos Owyeen were among as many
as 90 Indians who were killed Aug. 9, 1877, at a site near the Big
Hole River in present-day Montana. Twenty-two soldiers, a civilian
guide, and five civilian volunteers also were killed, the Park
Service said.
Two months later, most of the Nez Perce surrendered near the Canadian
border.
At Friday's ceremony in Spalding, more than two dozen people attended
the burial, including U.S. Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, both
Idaho Republicans.
Reservation government and spiritual leaders, who were on hand
attempted to describe the significance of the event as other tribal
members sang burial songs.
According to Axtell, the unknown Nez Perce already had been dug up
from a burial site before it was taken to Washington, D.C., in the
late 19th century.
"I don't have the words for that," Axtell said, shaking his head. "We
disagree with it very much."