| KOOSKIA INTERNMENT CAMP PROJECT 735 East Sixth Street Moscow, Idaho 83843 (208) 882-7905 e-mail: pwegars@uidaho.edu NEWS RELEASE 26 August 1997 KOOSKIA INTERNEES AND EMPLOYEES SOUGHT The Kooskia (pronounced KOOS-key) Internment Camp is an obscure and virtually- forgotten World War II detention facility that was located in a remote area of north-central Idaho, near Lowell. One of a number throughout the United States, administered by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), it held people of Japanese ancestry who were termed "enemy aliens," even though some of them may actually have been American citizens. The INS camps were separate and distinct from ten major camps under War Relocation Authority (WRA) supervision. The WRA camps, including one at Minidoka, in southern Idaho, housed more than 100,000 American citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who were unconstitutionally evacuated, relocated, and interned by the U.S. government during World War II. Approximately 175 Japanese, and some 27 Caucasian civilian employees, occupied the Kooskia Internment Camp between May 1943 and May 1945. The detainees participated in construction of the Lewis and Clark Highway, parallel to the wild and scenic Lochsa River. Known today as Highway 12, that route runs between Lewiston, Idaho and Lolo, Montana. Researcher Priscilla Wegars urgently seeks former Kooskia Internment Camp internees and employees, or their descendants, in order to interview them. She is also eager to locate any letters, diaries, photographs, or other documents relating to the Kooskia Internment Camp experience. Wegars recently received a grant from the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund (CLPEF) in support of this project. The CLPEF was authorized by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which awarded apologies and redress payments to citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry unconstitutionally evacuated, relocated, and interned during World War II. The Act also provided for the establishment of the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund, financing endeavors that inform the public about the internment in order to prevent the recurrence of any similar event. Wegars, the editor of Hidden Heritage: Historical Archaeology of the Overseas Chinese (Baywood, 1993), is an affiliate faculty member with the rank of assistant professor in the University of Idaho's Department of Sociology/Anthropology and is the volunteer curator of the Laboratory of Anthropology's Asian American Comparative Collection. Contact: Priscilla Wegars, Ph.D. (208) 882-7905 e-mail: pwegars@uidaho.edu |