Human remains discovered Sept. 1 during construction on Snake River Avenue in Lewiston, Idaho were determined to be ancestral remains from the Nez Perce Tribe.
Nakia Williamson-Cloud, the Cultural Resources Program Director for the Nez Perce Tribe, said the Tribe doesn’t usually tell the public how it handles ancestral grave sites.
“Unfortunately, this area as well as the West in general has a long history of people looting graves,” he said. “That was like a pastime for people around here, not that distant in the past.”
It’s rare for Williamson-Cloud and his team to find ancestral graves that haven’t been looted, he said.
“That’s why we’re particularly sensitive to this, because there’s a long history going up into the Hells Canyon and other places where people were digging up our human remains and treating them as curiosities,” said Williamson-Cloud.
Energy company Avista was installing a gas line when the remains were discovered, but Williamson-Cloud said the company stopped their work in order to mitigate further impacts to the site.
“We recognize the cultural and historical significance of discoveries like this and the importance of handling them with care and respect,” said Toni Pessimier, Avista’s director of tribal relations in an emailed statement.
“Upon discovery during construction work associated with a natural gas line replacement project, work stopped immediately and the proper notifications were made.”
Williamson-Cloud said despite it being an unfortunate part of his cultural work, he appreciated being called in.
“I think in this case, we were all able to work together and work in concert with one another to bring this to a fairly good resolution,” he said.
The case serves as a reminder that the Nez Perce people’s ancestral territory spanned about 19 million acres across the West, said Williamson-Cloud.
“We didn’t just live in Lapwai, we lived all over what is now Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Wyoming,” he said.
The Tribe will help monitor the site as construction continues, in case other ancestral remains are found.
But Williamson-Cloud is worried continued federal deregulation may impact his ability to protect future discoveries tied to the Nez Perce Tribe.
The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 requires federal agencies to consider the effects of federal plans on historic sites before undertaking big projects.
In July, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s members voted to move forward with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise Section 106. A draft of the proposed changes was leaked to the public after circulating through the council.
A statement from the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners, which shared the draft, called the revisions a betrayal of the government relationship with tribal nations.
The changes include making public comment an optional, rather than a mandatory, part of the Section 106 process.
“Those regulations and protections, and ability for us to work together is being stripped right now, it’s under attack, and it’s really disheartening,” said Williamson-Cloud. “Those are the regulations we depend on to protect our ancestors and to protect these very types of sites.”