Nez Perce

NEZ PERCE

NEZ PERCE. The Nez Perces speak of themselves as Nimiipuu, "the real people, " and are one of several Sahaptian branches of the Penutian language group found in the Pacific Northwest. They were called the Nez Percé or "Pierced Nose" Indians by early French and Anglo explorers because some of the tribe pierced the septum of their noses with dentalium, a custom more common along the Northwest Coast. Numbering between 6,000 to 8,000 when first contacted by Lewis and Clark in 1805, the Nez Perces located themselves at a crossroad between Plains and interior Plateau tribes, and thus had already been introduced to many material items of white origin by 1800.

The Nez Perces were friendly to white trappers. Some Nez Perce women married white or mixed-blood fur traders following the construction of Fort Nez Perce (later Walla Walla) in 1818 by the North West Company. After missionaries Eliza and Henry Spalding arrived in 1836 to live among the Nez Perces, nearly all continued to practice traditional religion and foodways, which integrated salmon fishing and camas gathering into a seasonal ceremonial calendar. These resources were supplemented with hunting of local game, especially deer and elk, and with procuring buffalo hide on biannual trips to the plains of Montana.

At the time of their first treaty with the United States in 1855, the Nez Perces were considered among the more cooperative people in the entire region. That atmosphere changed in the 1860s after whites trespassed on Nez Perce Reservation lands, establishing illegal gold mining camps and the supply center of Lewiston, Idaho, in violation of treaty provisions. This led to the Treaty of 1863, or the "Steal Treaty, " signed in 1863 by one faction of the tribe, thereafter known as the "Treaty Band, " under the United States' designated leader, Hallalhotsoot, "The Lawyer, " who gave further concessions in 1868, reducing a land base of 7.5 million acres under the 1855 treaty to 750,000 acres.

Non-treaty Nez Perces remained scattered in the former reservation area under various headmen, among

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them Tuekakas (Old Joseph) in the Wallowa Mountains of eastern Oregon. Following Tuekakas's death in 1871, Non-Treaty Nez Perces were pressured to move on to the diminished Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho. Violence escalated and when the murder of several Nez Perces went unpunished, young warriors determined to avenge the loss of their kinsmen, killing several whites in the Salmon River country. This led to an unofficial "war" in 1877 that escalated and eventually involved over 2,000 federal and territorial troops in pursuit of bands of Nez Perces not on the reservation. Led by warrior chief Looking Glass and guided by Lean Elk (also called Poker Joe), the non-treaty survivors were stopped after a heroic 1,500-mile trek through Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Only a few miles short of their goal of the Canadian border, the survivors stopped to rest and were confronted with superior numbers of U.S. troops. Upon Looking Glass's death in the final battle of the Nez Perce War at Bear's Paw, leadership was assumed by Hinmahtooyahlatkekht (Young Joseph), who surrendered, along with 86 men, 184 women, and 147 children, expecting to be returned to the Nez Perce Reservation. Instead, they faced incarceration on the Ponca Reservation in Indian Territory (later Oklahoma), remembered to this day as "the hot place" where all suffered and many died. A few, who had refused to surrender with Joseph, escaped into Canada with Chief White Bird, where they joined Sitting Bull's band of Sioux in political exile following victory at Little Bighorn the previous year.

In 1885, survivors of 1877 who agreed to convert to Christianity were allowed to return to Idaho; those who refused went to the Colville Reservation in Washington State. Struggling to the end for restoration of a reservation in the Wallowas, Joseph died on the Colville Reservation in 1904. By then, the official Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho had been allotted under the Dawes Severalty Act, which opened up "surplus lands" to non-Indian farmers in 1895.

During the twentieth century, Nez Perce men and women served in the U.S. Armed Services; many followed the lead of tribal member Dr. Archie Phinney and became professionals. Those in Idaho rejected the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, approving their own constitutional system in 1948 with an elected General Council that meets semi-annually. A nine-member elected body known as the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NEPTEC) makes day-to-day decisions and serves as the liaison with all federal agencies.

Enrolled Nez Perces numbered around 3,200 in the 2000 census. In Idaho, their political economy has benefited recently from the return of college graduates, tribal purchase of former lands lost during the Allotment Era, casino revenues, and an aggressive program in language revitalization.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gulick, Bill. Chief Joseph Country: Land of the Nez Percé. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1981.

Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965.

Slickpoo, Allen P., Sr., and Deward E. Walker Jr. Noon Nee Me-Poo (We, The Nez Percés): Culture and History of the Nez Perces. Lapwai, Idaho: Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, 1973.

Stern, Theodore. Chiefs and Chief Traders: Indian Relations at Fort Nez Percés, 1818–1855. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1996.

William R. Swagerty

See also Indian Land Cessions ; Nez Perce War .