By Associated Press - Wednesday, September 9, 2020

PABLO, Mont. (AP) - Employees at a museum in Montana have said several tribal and historical artifacts were spared from a fire at a cultural center for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes that killed what authorities said was the suspected arsonist.

Firefighters found the body of Julian Michael Draper, 33, in a back office at the People’s Center on Sunday, the Missoulian reported. Lake County Sheriff Don Bell said camera footage showed Draper entered the building through the back door prior to the fire.

“Draper had barricaded the doors, which made fighting the fire challenging,” Bell said, adding that Draper is the only suspect.

Authorities said Draper was arrested a week earlier for starting a fire nearby. Center Director Maria Torosian said she also saw him outside the People’s Center earlier this summer picking up trash around the building.

“He told me that his children had attended some of our activities here in the past,” Torosian said. “He said, ‘I don’t have anything to do. I don’t have a job. I’m just looking for something to give back, and I thought I’d come over here and just clean up the area and build up the talking circle.’ He called it a prayer circle.”

Bell could not say what ignited the fire.

The fire ravaged the center Sunday but never reached the museum wing of the quarter-century old building in Pablo. Torosian said Tuesday that everything in the museum was spared and removed Monday.

Relics included a beaded vest believed to have belonged to Bitterroot Salish subchief Arlee, after whom the town on the end of the Flathead Reservation was named, a pair of buckskin and quill moccasins dating to the early 1800s and the beaded vest of Martin Charlo, who succeeded his father Chief Victor Charlo as chief of the Salish in 1910.

The education section on the other end of the building was also spared, including its collection of historic photos of tribal elders that St. Ignatius collector Doug Allard commissioned in the early 1970s.

“Those all survived, no water damage,” Torosian said. “There’s some smoke on the glass and a few of the frames but they are all intact.”

The cost of the damage to the center has not yet been determined. An investigation is ongoing.

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