Exhibit to open this weekend

CATALDO - The award-winning exhibition, "Sacred Encounters: Father De Smet & the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West" will be unveiled Saturday at the Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park near Cataldo.

The Coeur d'Alene Tribe and the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation announced the ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. with tribe, state and other officials.

It will include opening remarks, Presentation of Colors; traditional drumming; invocation and ribbon cutting.

Sacred Encounters will feature about 60 artifacts, some liturgical materials, others Native American objects, some more than 200 years old.

All will tell stories of the relationship between the Tribe and the Jesuit priests led by Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, who traveled to the tribal homeland in 1842.

The 5,000-square-foot, climate controlled exhibit, with beefed up security measures, will include nine scenes, highlighted by video and music, as guests walk from one theme to the next. There will also be videotaped interviews with tribal elders, photographs and murals.

Cost is $5 per vehicle.

The Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park is off Interstate 90, at exit 39.