Post by blackcrowheart on Mar 30, 2007 8:42:57 GMT -5
ID Indian leaders view lynching murals
By JOHN MILLER
BOISE, Idaho -- Leaders of
four American Indian tribes on Wednesday viewed Depression-era murals,
depicting an Indian lynching, that are hung in the stairwell of an old
courthouse destined to house the Idaho Legislature in 2008 and 2009.
Shoshone-Bannock, Shoshone-Paiute, Nez Perce and Coeur d Alene
representatives spent 25 minutes inside the vacant Ada County
Courthouse, which will be used while the 100-year-old state Capitol
nearby gets a $130 million facelift and expansion. Lawmakers are
considering what to do with the two murals at issue, which depict a
buckskin-clad Indian as he's apprehended by two white men before two
other armed whites place a noose around his neck. In all, 26 murals
were painted in 1940 as part of the Works Progress Administration
Artists Project that put unemployed artists to work. They were meant to
depict events deemed significant in the founding of Ada County.
Because the 26 murals were never accompanied by interpretative signs,
the origins of their themes have been at least partially obscured.
Painted on canvas, they were installed in the courthouse's stairwell
with adhesive. Some appear to be hung in the wrong chronological order.
The Indians who viewed the lynching murals drew varied conclusions.
None, however, wanted the murals destroyed or concealed with paint.
"My gut reaction is to preserve them, but at the same time, take them
down," said Kyle Prior, chairman of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes on the
Idaho-Nevada border, adding he'd defer final comment until he'd reviewed
alternatives with other tribal leaders. Rebecca Miles, chairwoman of the
Nez Perce, who are based in central Idaho, said she'd defer to leaders
of tribes whose traditional lands included Ada County and might be
depicted in the murals, rather than steer the discussion herself. "I
expected to be offended. I wasn't," Miles said, adding interpretations
might be added to the murals in their present location, to help explain
their place - and the Indians' role - in Idaho's history. Members of the
Shoshone-Bannock tribes, many of whom live on the Fort Hall Indian
Reservation in the state's southeast, said they wanted the murals
preserved. The courthouse eventually could be converted into an archive
to house the history of Idaho's American Indians once the Legislature
moves out by 2010, said tribe Vice Chairman Lee Juan Tyler. "You might
as well use the building," Tyler said. "It's already there." The tour
grew out of a meeting of the Idaho Council on Indian Affairs, which
includes lawmakers and tribal leaders and attempts to ease animosity and
mistrust between the state and the sovereign Indian groups that have
called present-day Idaho home for thousands of years. Though the
council has no lawmaking authority, its co-chairman, Sen. Mike
Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said he'd take Indian groups' advice on the
lynching murals to colleagues in the state House and Senate. "Quite
frankly, we're looking to the tribes to tell us what you want us to do
with them," Jorgenson said. While experts, including those from the
Art Institute of Chicago, have relegated the mural collection to the "B
list" of American public art, local preservation buffs argue the
paintings are an integral part of the old Ada County Courthouse's
architecture and should be preserved where they are - including those
showing the Indian about to be hanged. "As architectural pieces, we
don't think they should be removed," said Don Watts, of the state
Historic Preservation Office, who led the Indians through the gloomy
stairwell to view the pictures. "Whatever our history was, it was our
history. They reflect our values at the time."
By JOHN MILLER
BOISE, Idaho -- Leaders of
four American Indian tribes on Wednesday viewed Depression-era murals,
depicting an Indian lynching, that are hung in the stairwell of an old
courthouse destined to house the Idaho Legislature in 2008 and 2009.
Shoshone-Bannock, Shoshone-Paiute, Nez Perce and Coeur d Alene
representatives spent 25 minutes inside the vacant Ada County
Courthouse, which will be used while the 100-year-old state Capitol
nearby gets a $130 million facelift and expansion. Lawmakers are
considering what to do with the two murals at issue, which depict a
buckskin-clad Indian as he's apprehended by two white men before two
other armed whites place a noose around his neck. In all, 26 murals
were painted in 1940 as part of the Works Progress Administration
Artists Project that put unemployed artists to work. They were meant to
depict events deemed significant in the founding of Ada County.
Because the 26 murals were never accompanied by interpretative signs,
the origins of their themes have been at least partially obscured.
Painted on canvas, they were installed in the courthouse's stairwell
with adhesive. Some appear to be hung in the wrong chronological order.
The Indians who viewed the lynching murals drew varied conclusions.
None, however, wanted the murals destroyed or concealed with paint.
"My gut reaction is to preserve them, but at the same time, take them
down," said Kyle Prior, chairman of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes on the
Idaho-Nevada border, adding he'd defer final comment until he'd reviewed
alternatives with other tribal leaders. Rebecca Miles, chairwoman of the
Nez Perce, who are based in central Idaho, said she'd defer to leaders
of tribes whose traditional lands included Ada County and might be
depicted in the murals, rather than steer the discussion herself. "I
expected to be offended. I wasn't," Miles said, adding interpretations
might be added to the murals in their present location, to help explain
their place - and the Indians' role - in Idaho's history. Members of the
Shoshone-Bannock tribes, many of whom live on the Fort Hall Indian
Reservation in the state's southeast, said they wanted the murals
preserved. The courthouse eventually could be converted into an archive
to house the history of Idaho's American Indians once the Legislature
moves out by 2010, said tribe Vice Chairman Lee Juan Tyler. "You might
as well use the building," Tyler said. "It's already there." The tour
grew out of a meeting of the Idaho Council on Indian Affairs, which
includes lawmakers and tribal leaders and attempts to ease animosity and
mistrust between the state and the sovereign Indian groups that have
called present-day Idaho home for thousands of years. Though the
council has no lawmaking authority, its co-chairman, Sen. Mike
Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said he'd take Indian groups' advice on the
lynching murals to colleagues in the state House and Senate. "Quite
frankly, we're looking to the tribes to tell us what you want us to do
with them," Jorgenson said. While experts, including those from the
Art Institute of Chicago, have relegated the mural collection to the "B
list" of American public art, local preservation buffs argue the
paintings are an integral part of the old Ada County Courthouse's
architecture and should be preserved where they are - including those
showing the Indian about to be hanged. "As architectural pieces, we
don't think they should be removed," said Don Watts, of the state
Historic Preservation Office, who led the Indians through the gloomy
stairwell to view the pictures. "Whatever our history was, it was our
history. They reflect our values at the time."