Permit to rebuild long house passes

The Nez Perce Long House destroyed by fire the day after Christmas, 2012, will soon be rebuilt.

An application for a land use and development permit was passed after a public hearing on the matter Feb. 27.

Albert Andrews Redstar, representing the Chief Joseph Long House Redevelopment, proposed replacing the former 70-by-80-foot building with one nearly twice that size, an 11,000-square-foot building.

The new building will be located in the same general area as the old building, about a mile south of Nespelem.

The public hearing was held at the Tribal Credit conference room.

It wasn’t immediately known when work would start or how much the project would cost, but the old building, one source noted at the time, had been insured for $350,000.

A report shortly after the fire stated that an electric malfunction was the cause of the blaze.

The old building was used for religious purposes and for important meetings, it was stated at the time. A number of cultural objects were destroyed in the fire.

The original building was constructed in 1975, as part of a bicentennial project.