This simple, elegantly shaped spoon of sheep horn is typical of the early spoons created and used by the Nez Perce in the mid-1800s. Two similar examples are in the Nez Perce National Monument Museum in Spalding, Idaho. They were owned by Lawyer, Chief of the Nez Perce, and his wife. Lawyer was one of the signers of the 1855 Stevens Treaty and the spoons date from that period.

Paul Raczka March 14, 2000