$608K repaid to Nez Perce for artifacts once held by Oberlin College

The Nez Perce tribe has at last been repaid for the more than $600,000 it spent a quarter century ago to reclaim cultural artifacts once held by Oberlin College. The 21-item collection includes 200-year-old beaded clothing, moccasins, an elk antler riding whip, a carved saddle, a bag in the shape of a deer head, a cradleboard, buffalo hair rope and other pieces. They are the earliest documented items of Nez Perce material culture, according to the National Park Service. "To us, these are not pieces of art or decor, they are pieces of us and they retain the spirits of our ancestors," Tribal Executive Committee Chairman Samuel Penney said in a written statement. Presbyterian missionary Henry Spalding shipped the gear in the 1840s to his friend and Oberlin medical doctor Dudley Allen in exchange for supplies, according to Nez Perce National Park. After Allen died in 1893, the artifacts were donated to Oberlin College, the college archives state. The Spalding-Allen Collection, as it was once known, was never displayed at Oberlin College, according to the tribe. It was rediscovered and in 1942 most of the artifacts were handed over to the Ohio Historical Society for safekeeping — though they were never displayed there, either. They were deeded to the institution in 1979. By that time, the Nez Perce had become aware of the artifacts' whereabouts, and arranged for the collection to go on display at the Nez Perce National Historic Park in Spalding, Idaho, where it stayed for two decades. The tribe spent much of that time negotiating to retain permanent control of the items. Penney said the relics are priceless, and it was worth paying any cost to have them again. No federal protections existed to aid in returning the objects. The former leadership of the Ohio Historical Society agreed to sell them at their appraised value, and set a six-month deadline. The Nez Perce, or Nimiipuu, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in 1996 to reclaim what was theirs. They renamed the once-lost artifacts the "Wetxuuwiitin Collection." The name means "returned home after a period of captivity." "These healing steps — bringing the items home, providing a fitting name and now reimbursement — give our people hope and build on that connection that's been missing for far too long," Penney said. In 2002, one more artifact was discovered at Oberlin College and returned to the Nez Perce. A twined root bag that had been lost for more than a century was returned by the Department of Anthropology, leading to an Oberlin symposium on the development of flat twined weaving in the 19th and 20th centuries, and panel discussions on museum collections and repatriation of Native American cultural objects. This summer, the Idaho tribe of roughly 3,500 members celebrated the 25th anniversary of the main collection's return. Representatives of the historical society — which in 2014 was renamed the Ohio History Connection — attended the event, including Executive Director and CEO Burt Logan. In a joint statement with the tribe, he said the celebration was "a painful reminder of the shameful mistreatment and marginalization of American Indians since the arrival of Europeans on the North American continent." In November, Ohio History Connection members returned to the Nez Perce Reservation to return the $608,100, which came from the Ohio History Fund. "This summer we diligently sought to learn as much as possible, and to process what this means to our organization," said Logan. "If the Wetxuuwiitin Collection was in the possession of the Ohio History Connection today, we would freely return these items to their rightful home," Logan said. Penney said the tribe was glad to see "this wrong corrected." Sundance, an Oberlin resident and director of the Cleveland American Indian Movement, said some museums and auction houses are starting to understand displaying, trading or selling indigenous artifacts as questionable practices. "There is a heightened sense of scrutiny," he said. Many are asking questions about how indigenous items were obtained, he said — often, there is no record. It's a good sign, said Sundance, that such artifacts are on the minds of the people they should rightfully belong to. Returning them is necessary for younger generations to form a proper connection to the past and their ancestral traditions. "For people who are on the cusp of cultural genocide, these artifacts play a significant role in the cultural and ceremonial life of the people they were obtained from," he said. Nakia Williamson, Nez Perce tribal member and director of the Nez Perce Tribe Cultural Resource Program, agreed in a 2020 retrospective on the Wetxuuwiitin Collection. "Something as simple as a buckskin dress reaffirms our identity, our lineage, our connection to the land and how it is connected to us," he said. "It is a reciprocal relationship to us." Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.