The Trail of the Buffalo

Man makes own museum out of his
vast collection

Venturan has gathered Native American artifacts

By Amy Bentley, Correspondent October 22, 2004
For all of his life, Edmund Tepper has loved and immersed himself in Native American culture. His mother was part Oglala Sioux and his father was of German descent, so Tepper felt comfortable in both the Native American culture and what he calls the “white man’s world.”

The spry 88-year-old Ventura resident has not only embraced his South Dakota Sioux heritage and learned the Lakota language, but he has also become an Indian historian, educator and storyteller. He has spent many years of his life teaching others about the olds ways of many Native American tribes.

For as long as Tepper can remember, he’s also collected Indian artifacts, books and memorabilia, including scores of antique pieces of clothing and weapons worn and used by Native Americans across the United States hundreds of years ago. He wrote and illustrated a book of short stories called “Legends of Plains Indian Children” for his and his wife’s grandchildren.

For the past 21/2 years, Tepper has shared his knowledge by operating the Trail of the Buffalo Native American Indian Museum. The museum is a one-room, low-budget operation with a hand-made sign in the front window and is open only two days a week.

“I enjoy it. It’s something that keeps me active in my old age. I can’t see, but I have a sharp mind. I want to carry on the heritage,” said Tepper, who lost most of his sight eight years ago because of glaucoma and cataracts.

Tepper’s museum is supported by many of his and his second wife, Lucy’s, adult children and their spouses, who have paid the rent and utility bills while a friend seeks private or public grant funding to keep it going.

When Tepper and Lucy married 12 years ago, his collection was in storage. When Lucy’s daughter Patti opened her memorabilia shop next door, Lucy Tepper said she told her daughter, “You don’t need all that space, why don’t you give some to Ed.” She did, and the museum was born.

Tepper’s wife, Lucy, a native of Ireland, is one of her husband’s many students. “It’s a history I didn’t know that I’ve learned,” Lucy Tepper said.

Sharing the ways of old

Poor vision has not stopped Ed Tepper from sharing his collection and knowledge with school children, Scout groups and others. Tepper likes to shows children Native American dances and games that he learned at pow wows and he enjoys giving children Indian names. He used to visit schools throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara counties when his sight was better and he could drive, but now he invites kids to his museum for field trips.

“The teachers love it, too. They learn more than they ever did out of a book,” said Tepper, who wears a grizzly bear claw on a chain of beads around his neck.

While Tepper feels many people don’t have much knowledge about Native American culture, he said, “They care. People really enjoy Indian stuff, more so than ever. It used to be a dirty word but I have so many people say, ‘I want to be an Indian.’ ”

Among the unique items at Tepper’s museum are scores of arrowheads, a pair of 200-year-old beaded and embroidered rawhide moccasins, clothing, animal hides, antlers, baskets, ceremonial objects and medicine sticks. Tepper also displays several woven bowls, grinding stones and clay pots from various tribes, including the local Chumash, along with war clubs and tomahawks used by many tribes around the nation in the 1800s.

Among Tepper’s more rare relics are a 100-year-old Kodiak bear claw necklace that was a gift from the Arapaho Chief Black Hawk, and a small Anasazi clay pot that is about 1,100 years old. Tepper also owns baskets and bowls estimated to be 300 to 400 years old, and he proudly wears a 160-year-old Sioux Eagle feather bonnet adorned with beads and fur.

In the old times, Tepper explained, Sioux men wore such bonnets if they earned the feathers during war exploits or by beating an enemy in some way, for example, by stealing horses from another tribe while the tribesmen and women were sleeping. In modern times, he explained, Native Americans can earn their feathers by doing good deeds, such as helping disabled people.

Gifts made his collection grow

Tepper spent much of his professional career as an artist for the Lockheed Corp., where he worked for 31 years in Burbank after serving stateside with the Air Force during World War II. He retired from Lockheed in 1972 at the age of 56, and said he misses the many friends who helped him amass his collection.

“At Lockheed, people who were non-Indians, maybe from Nebraska and they had an arrowhead, they would bring it to me. These things were given to me by wonderful Indian people and great white friends,” he said.

Tepper and some business partners also used to run a store in the San Fernando Valley called the Buffalo Robe Trading Post. For about 20 years, they sold Native American clothing and items and supplied filmmakers in Hollywood with Native American costumes for movies. The store has been closed for about 20 years.

Thirty-five years ago, Tepper moved to Carpinteria, then later, to Ventura. After Lockheed, he worked as a social services director for the Santa Barbara Community Action Commission for 12 years, and he worked with the Santa Barbara Urban Indian Clinic in Santa Barbara for 25 years. The Trail of the Buffalo Native American Indian Museum is his latest venture.

“I haven’t retired yet,” he said.

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