Ohio Historical Society player in controversy

Oberlin has been a big player in a 30-year saga involving a controversial collection of Indian artifacts. The highly valued Spalding-Allen Collection of Nez Perce tribal artifacts will remain permanently on display in Idaho as a result of a purchase agreement between the Nez Perce tribe and the Ohio Historical Society (OHS).

The artifacts were sent to Ohio by a missionary in 1846, and have been housed in many locations, including Oberlin. Many people feel that they are finally being returned to their rightful home on the Nez Perce reservation.

The artifacts were originally acquired by Henry H. Spalding, a Presbyterian missionary to the Nez Perce. Spalding sent the artifacts to his friend Dudley Allen in Ohio in exchange for food, supplies and calico. Allen's son, Dudley Allen Jr. (namesake of the Allen Memorial Art Museum) inherited his father's collection of 19 Nez Perce artifacts, including, among other items, a saddle, a deer head bag and several ceremonial garments.

Allen Jr. donated the entire collection to Oberlin in 1893. The College gave the collection to the OHS in 1942.

In 1970, a National Park Service (NPS) official contacted Oberlin as part of research for the Nez Perce National Historic Park. He inquired about the existence of the artifacts and the possibility of returning them to Idaho. Former Oberlin sociology professor Mark Papworth responded, saying that the tribe was welcome to any artifacts he discovered while sorting the College's "considerable supply of ethnographic debris."

The collection eventually surfaced at OHS and a loan agreement was arranged with NPS. Since 1979, the collection has been displayed in the visitor center at the Park.

According to Ann Frazier, media contact for OHS, the loan was renewed annually amid discussions of a possible purchase offer. In 1995, Frazier said, the historical society decided to recall the collection "in the absence of any definitive offers" in order to inspect its condition.

Meanwhile, tribal officials were beginning to question the ownership claims of OHS. According to Bob Chenoweth, curator of the NPS Nez Perce Historic Park, there is a lack of hard evidence that Spalding actually paid for the items in the collection. Chenoweth referred to Spalding's missionary work as "coercive" and "abusive."

According to tribal ethnographer Allen Slickpoo Sr., Spalding had no respect for Nez Perce culture. His mission was to convert them and he "strongly urged [them] to give up their native lifestyles."

Slickpoo described at least 12 of the objects in the Spalding-Allen Collection as "sacred objects," or part of the Nez Perce "cultural patrimony." Chenoweth suggested Spalding used his status as a religious figure to acquire "special items" the tribe would not otherwise have given up. As sacred or funerary objects, these items would fall under the Native American Graves Protection Repatriation Act, which requires that such items be returned to the tribe.

Under the current agreement, however, the tribe has agreed to pay $583,100 for the collection, plus $25,000 for an additional cradle-board. The purchase was a mutual decision between the tribe and OHS.

Chenoweth described the Nez Perce as "basically non-confrontational," stressing they did not have a history of conflict with white people. Frazier said that "divesting itself of the collection has never been the [Ohio Historical] Society's primary goal," but that they were "pleased" that the tribe was genuinely interested in preserving the collection.

"The tribe had valid reasons to believe that, had the collection been shipped back, that would have been it," Chenoweth said. "It was partly an act of desperation."

The agreement states the Nez Perce tribe will pay OHS on or before June 1, 1996. Meanwhile, the loan has been extended until June 30.

Chenoweth said the Spalding-Allen Collection debate raises many issues about ownership of cultural artifacts. Such an object "becomes a commodity when you take it out of a cultural context," he said. He stressed the religious and spiritual significance of the Nez Perce artifacts to the living members of that culture.

"We see religion as an institution," he said. "For the Nez Perce, there wasn't any separation. You lived and breathed your religion everyday. ...[These items were] made that way because they were someone's personal medicine."

Tom Hudson, the executive director of Heritage Quest Alliance, expressed his disappointment in the actions of OHS. He quoted the OHS World Wide Web page as saying that the organization was formed in response to "alarm over the removal from the state of valuable objects made by Ohio's prehistoric Indians."

"In the context of [this], the Nez Perce tribe tried to retain the artifacts to help preserve their heritage," he said. "Unfortunately, the OHS would only respond to a market rate offer. … I find their approach to be out of character with their own mission and devastating to the tribe. Nevertheless, we are working in good faith to raise the money."