Indians view mural of lynching

BOISE — Leaders of four American Indian tribes have 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 Wednesday 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."