Museum will return skull to Nez Perce

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, November 17, 2005

LEWISTON, Idaho – The skull of a Nez Perce warrior killed by U.S. troops in an 1877 battle and stored at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., for more than a century is being returned to his descendants.

In accordance with federal law, the skull of Pahkatos Owyeen (Five Wounds) will be turned over to his family in December.

“I am glad to know at least part of him will be buried here where our others are buried,” granddaughter Nancy Halfmoon, 93, of Lapwai said.

Owyeen was killed Aug. 9, 1877, during the battle of Big Hole in Beaverhead County, Mont., said great-grandson Otis Halfmoon of Santa Fe, N.M. His head was cut off and donated to the Army Medical Museum. It arrived at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 1898, said Risa Arbolino of the museum’s repatriation office. Halfmoon had heard stories of Owyeen’s death, and a year ago, he contacted the museum to request the skull be returned.