Summary

In 1847, missionary Henry Spalding shipped two barrels to Dr. Dudley Allen in Kinsman, Ohio. The "Indian curiosities" inside included exquisite Nez Perce shirts, dresses, baskets, and horse regalia-some decorated with porcupine quills and others with precious dentalium shells and rare elk teeth. Donated to Oberlin College in 1893 and transferred to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in 1942, the collection languished in storage until Nez Perce National Historic Park curators rediscovered it in 1976. The OHS loaned most of the artifacts to the National Park Service. After receiving conservation treatment, the pieces were placed on display in climate-controlled cases. Twelve years later, the OHS abruptly recalled the collection, but after public pressure and extended negotiations, agreed to sell the articles to the Nez Perce at their full appraised value of $608,100, with a seemingly impossible six-month payment deadline. The tribe formed the Nez Perce Heritage Quest Alliance and mounted a brilliant grassroots fundraising campaign. One day before the rime limit, they met their goal. Josiah Pinkham, Nez Perce cultural specialist, notes that they embody "the earliest and greatest centralization of ethnographic objects for the Nez Perce people. You don't have a collection of this size, this age, anywhere else in the world." The author draws on interviews with Nez Perce experts and extensive archival research to tell the collection's remarkable story. He also examines the ethics of acquiring, bartering, owning, and selling Native cultural history, as Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous communities continue their efforts to restore their exploited cultural heritage from collectors and museums-pieces that are living, breathing, intimately connected to their home region, and inspirational for sustaining cultural traditions. Book jacket.