POCATELLO — An elaborately fringed and beaded 1885 Indian tobacco bag stolen from an exhibit at the Idaho Museum of Natural History's gallery almost 11 years ago has been returned to the museum at Idaho State University.
Police handed over the bag, which is valued at $18,000, to Lynn Murdoch, manager of the museum's anthropology collection.
"We were really happy to get it back. We really don't have anything like it in our collection," Murdoch said. "It's in good condition for everything it's been through."
The pouch, which is about 30 inches long and made of buckskin, was spotted by a former Idaho State anthropology student who was checking out a Web site for a Santa Fe, N.M., art gallery last fall.
"The former student, who had been in the work study program at the museum, called us up and said, 'Hey, I think I saw your stolen bag,' " Murdoch said.
Police detective Scott Branson said the Santa Fe gallery's owner, Mike Kokin, helped trace possession of the bag back through several buyers to an auction house in Scotland, where it was purchased by a dealer and brought back to the United States.
The bag was stolen on June 26, 1989, when someone smashed the case in which it was displayed after the museum had closed for the day. At the time of the theft the bag was valued at $2,500.
"We're sure someone had their eye on it and hid until everyone left for the night," Murdoch said. "Another bag we had loaned to the Lava Hot Springs museum was also stolen around the same time. We didn't have a picture of it, however."
The bag, which may be of Shoshone or Plains Indians origin, was donated to the museum by the Pocatello Chamber of Commerce in 1937.
It now will be back on display at the museum. Murdoch said security improvements have been made since the theft, including installation of video monitoring cameras.