Nez Perce National Historical Park Administrative History

CHAPTER TWO:
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENT

The Superintendency of Robert L. Burns, 1965-1968

On August 22, 1965, more than three months after Nez Perce National Historical Park was authorized, the Secretary of the Interior announced that Robert L. Burns had been appointed the park's first superintendent. Burns was selected for the job for a couple of reasons. As the first superintendent of Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial from 1963 to 1965, he had already been through the experience of setting up a new unit in the national park system. Before going east in 1960, Burns had spent thirteen years as a ranger in various national parks in the Rocky Mountain West, concluding with three years at Big Hole Battlefield National Monument in 1957-1960. Big Hole was the site of a sharp engagement between the Nez Perce and the U.S. Army in 1877, and while serving at that site Burns learned about the story of the Nez Perce War of 1877. [71] When he was appointed superintendent of Nez Perce National Historical Park, Burns decided with hindsight that the Park Service's experience at Big Hole in the late 1950s and early 1960s — establishing an administrative presence, receiving visitors, and preparing development plans under Mission 66 — helped to generate enthusiasm within the Park Service for the Nez Perce National Historical Park proposal. [72]

Burns arrived in Nez Perce country with an open mind as to where he would establish temporary headquarters. Spalding, Lapwai, and Lewiston all seemed like possibilities. He inquired about office space in the BIA's administrative building in Lapwai, but was offered nothing better than a cramped room in the basement bisected at chest height by a water pipe. Richard Halfmoon then suggested that he establish his quarters in Watson's Store, an old general store on the edge of the Spalding State Park which the tribe had recently purchased with the expectation that it would be incorporated into the national historical park. [73] Burns accepted the offer, and Watson's Store became the park's administrative headquarters and temporary visitor center for the next three years.

One of Burns' initial tasks was to establish official contact with numerous political entities throughout the region. His objectives were to advertise the park, to make the Park Service administrative presence known, and to develop partnerships with landowners of those sites that would be cooperatively managed. Thus he delivered lectures and slide programs at the University of Idaho and Washington State University, gave talks to schools and service clubs in the Lewiston-Clarkston area, agreed to be interviewed by the Lewiston and Spokane newspapers and Lewiston's TV and radio stations, corresponded with key U.S. senators and congressmen, consulted with members of the Spalding Museum Foundation, the Nez Perce National Historical Park Association, and tribal leaders, contacted state officials in Boise, and met with Forest Service officials of the Clearwater National Forest. [74]

Another preliminary administrative concern was to get the land acquisition program moving. Burns worked with specialists in the Park Service's Western Service Center in San Francisco, making recommendations on site as to which land owners would likely negotiate a fair price and which would not. The latter residents were threatened with proceedings to condemn their property by right of eminent domain, as authorized under Section 3 of the Nez Perce National Historical Park Act. [75] The process of land acquisition was most contentious at Spalding, where the Park Service wanted to add several privately owned tracts to the core area covered by the Spalding State Park. Ultimately, twelve households were removed in order to restore the historical character of Spalding. Burns took pride in the fact that the people who were dispossessed received an equitable settlement under his watchful eye. [76] As a result, the Park Service reached its $630,000 limit before it had acquired all the private land that it desired.

Burns also ran into a sharp encounter in East Kamiah. There the Park Service wanted to acquire the First Presbyterian Church of Kamiah and the neighboring house that had once been the home of the missionary-teacher McBeth sisters. The church's Nez Perce parishioners and the Reverend Henry L. Sugden turned out to be unwilling sellers. Sugden informed Burns in the fall of 1967 that his parishioners were adamantly opposed to the purchase and resented the recent visit by an appraiser. He hinted that they might consider a long-term lease of the former McBeth house, however. After serious consideration, Burns recommended that the Park Service drop the two buildings from the list of properties that were being sought as park sites. He argued that the missionary story in East Kamiah was not of prime importance to the park for it overlapped the missionary story at Spalding and Lapwai. [77]

Burns wanted to be sensitive to opposition to the park from Nez Perce tribal members in East Kamiah in order to preserve the feeling of goodwill toward the park among the tribe as a whole. When he spoke to the parishioners at East Kamiah, he could not dislodge their idea that the park was a "white man's scheme to make the white man rich." Burns noted that the attitude might stem from the fact that the Nez Perce at Kamiah and Lapwai still harbored bad feelings toward each other based on their respective loyalties shown in the War of 1877. [78] The superintendent did not want the park to cause friction between tribal factions. If it did, he reasoned, the Park Service would find itself in the position of favoring one faction over another.

The land acquisition program remained tightly focused on a few core sites. Initially the Park Service planned to acquire fee title to just three sites: Spalding, East Kamiah, and White Bird Battlefield. Sometime after Burns' arrival, acquisition of the state's seven-acre Lewis and Clark Canoe Camp site entered into the program. In February 1966, Regional Director Edward A. Hummel inquired with state officials about the possibility of including this area with the anticipated transfer of Spalding State Park. The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation welcomed this suggestion. Director Wilhelm M. Beckert stated that both sites would achieve a "better national image and national recognition under the National Park Service," and expected that the people of Idaho would "greatly benefit" if these sites were placed "under the National Park designation." [79]

Burns began preparing for the transfer of the Spalding State Park to the Park Service as soon as he heard that the state legislature had passed the authorizing legislation. The ceremony was scheduled for the earliest possible date, July 24, 1966. This allowed three months to clear the title to the land, verify boundaries, hire two maintenance men (one for the Spalding site and one for the Canoe Camp site), oversee dismantling of the existing concession stand and cleanup of the area, and invite the appropriate dignitaries to the ceremony. On the appointed day, Governor Smylie transferred the Spalding State Park together with the Canoe Camp site to the Park Service. [80]

After establishing a Park Service presence and getting the land acquisition program moving, assembling a staff became the new superintendent's next concern. This was no routine task, as Burns had to reconcile civil service procedures with the expectation on the part of many Nez Perces that tribal members would find jobs in the new park. The first staff position that Burns needed to fill was that of administrative clerk. Thinking of the importance of precedence he very much wanted a Nez Perce tribal member for that position. He coordinated a search with the chairman of NPTEC and the BIA office in Lapwai, but failed to locate an interested, qualified tribal member. [81] After keeping the search going months longer than he had anticipated, he hired Carol M. Gamet, an employee of the BIA office in Lapwai and a non-Indian.

Meanwhile, Burns received several inquiries from tribal members about other employment opportunities in the park. Two Nez Perce women, Ida Blackeagle and Viola Morris, were hired to perform their beadwork and other crafts in the presence of park visitors. These women became the first "cultural demonstrators" in the National Park Service. [82] Some Nez Perces were interested in seasonal ranger positions. One individual wanted to serve as a guide, but Burns informed him that there would be no such position for at least three years. With the transfer of the Spalding State Park, the NPS hired two laborers (one Nez Perce and one non-Indian) who worked for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. Burns employed two other non-Indians to fill seasonal ranger positions during the summer of 1966. The following winter another non-Indian, Milo E. Anderson, joined the staff as maintenance foreman. [83]

Burns also brought a park historian on staff. He wanted an individual who could bring expertise to the tasks of curating artifacts and setting up an interpretive program, as well as serve as acting superintendent when Burns was absent. In March 1966, Burns informed Allen Slickpoo that the candidate for this job would have to have about fifteen years of Park Service experience. Six months later, in a letter to the regional director, Burns lowered his standards to ten years experience and stressed that he wanted to "push this through as soon as I can." Without recommending a specific federal grade level, Burns suggested that "perhaps after the development and construction phase of the Park has been completed the grade of the Historian may want to be dropped one or two grades." [84] In February 1967, Earl R. Harris was hired as park historian. He had worked for the NPS since 1950. He transferred to Nez Perce from Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska. [85]

If the composition of the new staff seemed disappointingly non-Indian to the Nez Perce Tribe in 1967, tribal leaders by and large accepted it graciously. They remained confident that the park would be a good thing for their people and that Burns had their interests at heart. The superintendent worked hard to develop a personal rapport with the Nez Perce and genuinely enjoyed that aspect of his job. He took lessons in the Nez Perce language from a tribal elder and attempted, without great success, to learn Nez Perce beadwork. He often "made sweat" with the Indians, priding himself on the fact that he could take the heat in the sweat lodge longer than some of his Nez Perce companions. He learned all that he could about native foods, collected various plant specimens for display in the Watson's Store, and cultivated his own patch of the medicinal root, kouse-kouse. [86] Burns and Halfmoon once traveled to Nespelem, Washington, to inspect the grave of the younger Chief Joseph. The two men were in agreement that the gravesite should one day become part of the Nez Perce National Historical Park. Regional Director John A. Rutter subsequently advised Burns that the matter of the grave was out of Burns' jurisdiction. [87]

Before Burns departed Nez Perce country for Philadelphia in 1968, his good friends Richard Halfmoon and Sam Watters took him into the backcountry. There they insisted that he go out alone on a vision quest. Considerably moved, Burns complied. [88] This farewell gesture not only revealed something of the tribal leaders' relationship to the superintendent; it also indicated their untarnished hopes for the park's future.