Josephy Center Presents: Opening Reception for Nez Perce Art Exhibit

The Way They Lived:

The Wal-lum-wat-kin Band of Chute-pa-lu, or Nez Perces

Exhibit Running June 3-24

Known more popularly as the “Joseph” or “Wallowa” Band of the Nez Perce. This month we honor the Indians who lived here for millennia and their descendants. The exhibit includes historic photos from the Nez Perce National Historical Park, the University of Idaho Library’s digital photo collection, and the Wallowa History Center. Nez Perce historian and long-time tribal official, Allen Pinkham, Sr. will give words to the exhibit at its June 3 opening, and Brown Bags and workshops throughout the month will continue the celebration. The month concludes with display and sale of contemporary Indian art.

Nez Perce elder, historian, and long-time tribal and national activist Allen Pinkham, Sr. will talk about the way the people lived in Wallowa Country before white settlement. The photos were most probably taken by White Men. The technology of the time–late 1800s and early 1900s–made studio portraits the clearest and most popular photography.

But, fortunately, from the earliest days of the art, some photographers recorded everyday activity as well, even women’s activities, and elders like Allen reach back to oral records passed down by the people along with the writing and pictures made by whites to recapture a way of life and values that many wanted gone or feared would be lost with total assimilation of the American Indian.