Honoring the legend

The Nez Perce creation story — tim’né•pe, or “Heart of the Monster” — comes alive on the walls of the Lewiston City Library today in the form of a newly completed mural, a timely unveiling since wintertime traditionally is when legend stories are told.

“It just worked out that way,” said Harry Slickpoo Jr., who advised artist Linda McMillin as she designed the mural.

Slickpoo, who teaches Nez Perce language at Lewiston High School, said he was grateful for the opportunity “to guide and watch this project evolve over time,” and he will help celebrate its completion by telling the Heart of the Monster story during a dedication ceremony at 5:30 p.m. at the library.

Afterward, patrons can view McMillin’s visual retelling of the story in the children’s section, where she painted the legend scene by scene on the walls of a reading nook, accompanied by the text of the story, which youth services librarian Colleen Olive cut out letter by letter with a Cricut digital cutting tool.

McMillin and Olive consulted with Slickpoo to ensure the project honored the traditional story and included current spelling and punctuation of Nez Perce words.

“That was our desire, both of us, was to be authentic and to give honor to the legend,” Olive said.

Olive, who has lived in Kamiah for 40 years, said she’s always considered the nearby Heart of the Monster monument a special place, and she’d long had the idea to bring the story to the community through a mural at the library.

That dream took a step toward reality after a chance meeting with McMillin, a retired art teacher who moved to Lewiston from Parma, Idaho. McMillin first painted murals in her school district, then in the community and now has three of her works at the state Capitol in Boise.

She’s drawn to mural painting, she said, because “it is art for everybody,” experienced by people going about their daily lives.

“It’s not a special trip,” she said. “It’s just out there.”

That sentiment matched Olive’s vision for the project and for the library, which she emphasized “is for everyone.”

Olive applied for and received a grant from the Nez Perce Tribe, and 100 hours of McMillin’s work later, her public art project was realized.

The story of Iceye’ye, or coyote, killing the monster to create the Nez Perce people is told in panels, creating an effect Olive likened to a graphic novel. The words, from a recording by late Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee Chairperson Angus Wilson, are affixed in her carefully placed vinyl lettering over each panel.

And along with the text accompanying McMillin’s artwork, Olive included a QR code that links to the Nez Perce National Historical Park website.

“I wanted to give people the opportunity to learn more,” she said.

As an oral tradition, the story has countless retellings, but Wilson’s, which visitors can listen to at a kiosk at the Heart of the Monster National Historical Park site, was the one Olive wanted to use.

“When you go and listen to him tell that story, it draws you in,” she said.

Creating a visual version of the story meant depicting not just the animals — coyote, fox, magpie, muskrat, snake — but the monster itself, something she could find no record of, McMillin said. So it seemed appropriate, she said, to keep the monster’s image somewhat of a mystery: It peeks out from behind the mountain, its full form never revealed.

She and her 5- and 7-year-old grandchildren listened to the story together, and when she asked them what they thought the monster looked like, the first answer was “purple eyes” — and that detail immediately was settled.

McMillin and Slickpoo visited the Nez Perce National Historical Park at Spalding where she was able to examine items created by Nez Perce people, a crucial step in designing the mural. She described the guidance she received from Slickpoo and historical park cultural resources program manager Kristine Leier as “very helpful and vital” to her creative decisions.

McMillin’s attention to detail and efforts to learn about traditional Nez Perce design, materials and use of color made the mural “as Nez Perce as possible,” Slickpoo said.

“I really tried to make it as authentic as I could in any way that I could,” she said.

He’s happy with how the project went, Slickpoo said, and with the exposure it will bring to this foundational story of the Nimíipuu, or Nez Perce people.

“This story tells us where we come from,” he said.

Stone (she/her) can be reached at mstone@inland360.com.

IF YOU GO

‘Heart of the Monster’ mural dedication

When: 5:30 p.m. today.

Where: Lewiston City Library Event Space (second floor), 411 D St.

Cost: Free.

Details: Muralist Linda McMillin and Nez Perce language teacher Harry Slickpoo Jr. will be on hand to celebrate the new artwork in the library’s children’s section depicting the Nez Perce creation story.