CHAPTER TWO:
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

The Superintendency of Roy W. Weaver, 1987-1990

Weaver had worked in a variety of functions, including natural resource management, interpretation, and park management, during his tenure with the NPS. He was the first superintendent of Roger Williams National Memorial in Providence, Rhode Island. Although he had never before worked in a park unit with a close relationship to an Indian tribe, Weaver maintains that his experience working with various ethnic groups on the East Coast served him well at Nez Perce. Weaver brought to the superintendency a "healthy curiosity" about Nez Perce culture, as well as a professional commitment to listen to tribal concerns and to make the park a good neighbor. One of his first acts was to tour the park with NPTEC members. [134]

From the tribe's standpoint, Weaver got the park administration moving in the right direction again with the appointment of two Nez Perces, Jesse Kipp and Kevin Peters, to permanent staff positions. In addition, the park still employed Nez Perces as cultural demonstrators and in other seasonal jobs, and Allen Slickpoo held a temporary position as a museum technician. Still, there were numerous frustrations. Weaver tried to get Slickpoo's position upgraded, but the regulations of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) barred the upgrade because Slickpoo, for all his expertise in Nez Perce culture, lacked the necessary formal educational credentials. Weaver also applied for "contiguous area" hiring authority — a special dispensation granted to some federal employers to circumvent standard OPM procedures and hire within local communities — but the OPM denied this request also. [135]

Weaver's impact in other areas benefitted the park. For example, Weaver gave a new impetus to resource management. With his degree in forestry, Weaver had acquired a strong background in natural resource management. It was his philosophy that national park managers should make resource protection their number one priority, ahead of visitor use and interpretation, even in a historical park such as Nez Perce. Prior to 1987, natural resources in Nez Perce National Historical Park received scant attention. Weaver established new staff positions, a natural resource management program, and a collections management program, obtaining political and financial support from the NPS regional office and technical assistance from Biologist Gerry Wright of the Cooperative Park Studies Unit at the University of Idaho. [136]

After improving tribal relations and boosting the park's resource management program, Weaver's third major effort was to resurrect the old movement to bring other sites in Oregon, Washington, and Montana that related to the Nez Perce story into the park. Citizens' groups were already raising the issue in 1986, and park staffer Art Hathaway had attended a few meetings concerning park additions before Weaver's arrival. Weaver held meetings with citizens in Oregon's Wallowa country and with Joe Redthunder of the Chief Joseph band of Nez Perce on the Colville Indian Reservation in north central Washington. The regional office assembled a team to produce an "additions study" and the prospects for congressional approval looked promising until two property owners in Joseph, Oregon, objected. As a result, Oregon's Senator Mark Hatfield withdrew his support for the bill. The movement stalled temporarily just as Weaver was seeking a transfer to another park in a different region. [137]

After Weaver's departure in July 1990, Museum Curator Susan Buchel served as acting superintendent for two months. During this interim, Buchel and other staff members developed a "yellow paper" which outlined recommendations for the new superintendent. These included improving the National Park Service image, working more closely with the Nez Perce Tribe, involving the staff more closely in park operations, and improving the quality of interpretation and resource management. [138]