Nez Perce National Historical Park Administrative History

CHAPTER EIGHT:
NEW ADDITIONS

The 1969 Park Additions Study

Conceptually, Nez Perce National Historical Park embraced a distinct region of the West that the park's creators defined as "Nez Perce country." Statutorily, the park was confined to the "Nez Perce country of Idaho." Apparently Assistant Secretary of the Interior John Carver, a Boise native, favored this limitation as a practical matter, assuming that a national historical park which crossed state lines would be harder to sell in Congress. But the act's inconsistency in this respect was evident because the aboriginal homeland of the Nez Perce people obviously predated state lines and extended into what is now northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington. Moreover, the War of 1877 had taken the non-treaty portion of the tribe on a 1,300-mile journey into western Montana, Yellowstone National Park, and finally north central Montana. Survivors of the war eventually became scattered between Canada, the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, and the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Idaho. The Nez Perce Trail, battlefield sites in Montana, and sites reflecting the Joseph band's exile on the Colville Indian Reservation all comprised important parts of the Nez Perce story and actually lay beyond the bounds of the aboriginal Nez Perce homeland. The main concept of the park additions was to correct the inconsistency between the park idea and its authorizing legislation and allow the Nez Perce story to unfold over a broader canvas.

The impetus for park additions originally came from citizens of the Wallowa country of northeastern Oregon. In the fall of 1967, Dean B. Erwin of Enterprise, Oregon, and Harold H. Haller of LaGrande, Oregon, wrote their congressional representatives and state governor protesting that the Nez Perce National Historical Park should not have been limited to Idaho. In December 1967, Northeast Oregon Vacationland, Inc., of which Haller was president, passed a resolution requesting that certain sites in Wallowa County be considered for inclusion in the park. Oregon Senators Mark O. Hatfield and Wayne L. Morse and Representative Al Ullman sent three separate inquiries to the Interior Department based on these requests. [332]

The Park Service responded to the congressional inquiries by fielding a study team in the fall of 1968. The team inspected seven sites in Oregon and Washington: the gravesite of Chief Joseph the Older near the town of Joseph, Oregon, on the shore of Wallowa Lake; the site of Chief Joseph the Younger's first encounter with settlers; the homesite of the first American settler in the Wallowa Valley; Joseph Canyon viewpoint on Oregon State Highway 3, a cave site on Joseph Creek, Asotin County, Washington, that was reputedly the birthplace of Chief Joseph the Younger; the last campsite of Chief Joseph the Younger; and the gravesite of Chief Joseph the Younger. The study team also gave consideration to sites along the route taken by non-treaty Nez Perce in the War of 1877 although it did not visit them in the field. These included Camas Meadows, Idaho; Fort Fizzle, Montana; Big Hole National Battlefield, Montana; Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; and Bear Paw Battlefield, Montana (Figure 6). [333]

The team concluded that two of the Oregon sites — the gravesite of Chief Joseph the Older and the Joseph Canyon viewpoint — were significant and suitable additions to the park, while the other two Oregon sites together with the cave site in Asotin County, Washington, did not have national significance. The last campsite and gravesite of Chief Joseph the Younger, both situated on the Colville Indian Reservation, deserved recognition but were not suitable additions because they were too far from the rest of the park. The sites in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming associated with the war were more or less significant but also seemed too distant to be added to the park. [334] In effect, the team was suggesting that the park could cross state lines but it should still stay within the area of the Nez Perce homeland; "Nez Perce country" should not be redefined to include the trail of the Nez Perce in 1877 nor the scenes of the non-treaty Nez Perces' exile following their defeat.

The team closed its 37-page report by proposing two alternatives for bringing the two significant Oregon sites into the park. One alternative would involve government purchase of 5.1 acres of fee land and 100 acres of scenic easement surrounding the elder Chief Joseph gravesite at Wallowa Lake. The other alternative would accept this site under current ownership and the Park Service would administer it through a cooperative agreement. In other words, the question of federal acquisition of this small parcel of land was critical. Regardless of whether the federal government acquired the site or not, the addition of the two Oregon sites would require Congress to amend the original park act by removing the stipulation that the park would be confined to Idaho. [335]

Congressman Ullman introduced H.R. 1189, a bill to amend the Nez Perce National Historical Park Act, on January 22, 1971. The House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs requested more information from the Park Service in support of Ullman's bill. Specifically the committee needed data on the current land status of the two sites, the kind of resources the sites contained, and the Park Service's land requirements in order to protect them adequately, and details on how the Park Service would develop the two sites as well as cost estimates for each. The Park Service did not commit the necessary staff time to compile this information, and so the bill languished in committee. A frustrated Alvin Josephy complained that "something seems to have gone awry in the Washington office." [336] But Superintendent Jack Williams attributed the Park Service's neglect of the House committee's request to lower echelons in the agency. [337]

The newly operational Pacific Northwest Regional Office produced an environmental impact statement on the proposed Oregon park additions in the fall of 1972, and the Washington office completed a legislative support package in December 1972, but the Ullman bill was never reintroduced. [338]

Despite the disappointing outcome, this early effort to make the park more nearly encompass all of "Nez Perce country" had lasting repercussions. The most important result was to spur Nez Perce tribal interest in the Oregon, Washington, and Montana sites. As early as November 1967, Superintendent Burns and NPTEC Chairman Richard Halfmoon travelled to the gravesite of Chief Joseph the Younger near Nespelem, Washington, with the idea that the park might some day encompass this site. In 1969, the additions study team made initial contact with Joe Redthunder of Nespelem, the oldest living descendent of Chief Joseph. [339] With the creation of Nez Perce National Historical Park, Nez Perces began to take an interest in the battlefield sites in Montana as well. Josiah Red Wolf, the last Nez Perce survivor of the War of 1877, had lost his mother and sister in the Battle of the Big Hole when he was five years old. Now in his nineties, he went to Big Hole National Battlefield and broke ground for the new visitor center, marking the first time he had been back to this tragic scene of his youth. [340] In the centennial year of the war, several hundred Nez Perces traveled to the Bear Paw Battlefield to take part in ceremonies. There they found the state's historical markers inaccurately placed and in some cases defaced. That fall, NPTEC passed a resolution urging that the state of Montana transfer this state park to the federal government for inclusion in the Nez Perce National Historical Park. The NPS responded that the War of 1877 was already adequately represented in the national park system by Big Hole National Battlefield and the White Bird Battlefield. [341]

A second important result of the early effort to expand Nez Perce National Historical Park was the attention it brought to the Old Chief Joseph gravesite. Not only did local citizens of Wallowa County become interested in better preserving the site, but Nez Perces of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Idaho also became better apprised of the situation. In 1972, NPS officials negotiated with the owner of the surrounding land, the Associated Ditch Company. The Associated Ditch Company expressed strong opposition to the initial proposal of a 100-acre scenic easement. Following those negotiations, the NPS revised its proposal to involve acquisition of the existing 5.1-acre parcel (owned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs) plus acquisition of a maximum of 8 acres in fee. [342] This proposal formed the basis for renewed discussion in the 1980s.