[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 11, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S5520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING HORACE P. AXTELL

 Mr. CRAPO. Madam President, I am pleased to recognize an 
extraordinary honor bestowed upon Horace P. Axtell, elder of the 
Nimiipu, more commonly known as the Nez Perce Tribe. Horace is a 2008 
recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, National 
Heritage Fellowship, an annual fellowship that honors American folk 
artists for contributions to American culture. The highest federal 
honor in the folk and traditional arts, only 10 NEA National Heritage 
Fellowships are awarded every year.
  Horace is a Nez Perce tribal historian, storyteller, singer and drum 
maker. In fact, he is a spiritual leader of the Seven-Drum religion, a 
traditional religion of the tribes of the plateau region that requires 
practitioners to memorize songs and accompany them on handmade drums. 
He still builds these drums in the traditional way, curing hides and 
stretching them over wooden frames. Spending his youth listening to 
stories of the tribal elders, some of whom survived the 1877 war 
against the Nez Perce by the United States, Horace is now a respected 
elder himself and a pipe carrier for his tribe, a position of great 
honor. He is the author of a memoir, the first one printed in over half 
a century by a Nez Perce elder. He has received numerous awards 
including the President's Medallion from the University of Idaho, an 
honorary doctorate from Lewis-Clark State College and the Washington 
State Historical Society Peace and Friendship Award.
  It is an honor for me to publicly recognize the remarkable 
achievements of Horace P. Axtell.

                          ____________________