Nez Perce Indiansor Nimiipuu (‘we the people’)

Old Chief Joseph Gravesite, OR

Presented by:

Matt Kristiniak

Ann Bishop

Eric Wright

Nez Perce Original Territory

Nez Perce Territory was about 7 million acres, it is now 88,314 acres

The Creation Story

The Heart of the Monster

Nez Perce Name & Language

Nez Perce comes from French for ‘pierced noses’ given to them by French fur traders because some of them pierced their

noses. However, this was not common among the Nimiipuu.

Lewis & Clark named them the Chopunnish

They named themselves Nimiipuu meaning: we the people

Nez Perce Language is part of the Sahaptian language family, with close linguistic ties to other Sahaptin speakers of Oregon and Washington, such as: Palouse, Walla Walla, Yakama, Umatilla, Wanapum of Priest Rapids and Wayampan of Celilo Falls.

Nez Perce Way of Life Foods:

Fish: esp. salmon Mammals: elk, deer, mountain sheep, rabbits Wild plants: camas bulb, roots, berries No agriculture

Moved around with the changing season

Different houses for warm and cold weather Temporary shelters/earth covered pithouses

Villages: 5 to 6 pithouses, containing several families near fishing stations Each village was led by a headman, no overall tribal political leader or

organization Sometimes villages united to form a band that looked up to a single civil leader

and to councils whose members were respected for wisdom and special abilities

Nez Perce Way of Life

Women wove exquisite baskets used for cooking and gathering wild plants, famous for basket hats

Nez Perce Indians did not make pottery Clothes made out of cedar bark, deerskin, and rabbit

skin After introduction of horse (ca. 1700) they ventured

out into the Plains east of the Rocky Mountains to hunt buffalo

Started using larger hide tepees like those of the Plains Indians when they were on hunting and fishing trips

Nez Perce Dress Men

long, fringed buckskin shirts, leggings, belts, a breech cloth, and several types of moccasins

feathered bonnet Women

long, belted buckskin dresses, corn husk basketry hats, and knee length moccasins

dresses were decorated with elk teeth, beads made of shell, bone, and later glass, porcupine quills, and vegetable and mineral dyes

Nez Perce Culture: Horse Breeding Appaloosa Horse – Spotted Horse

(< Palouse River)

Ca. 1700 Selective Breeding Greater Mobility Better Hunting Skills Wealth

Nez Perce History Pre-contact: fishermen, bison hunters, horse breeders

September, 1805: Nez Perce Indians help Lewis & Clark expedition, first contact with white people

1855 Treaty Aleija Lawyer appointed by US Gov’t as Head Chief of Nimiipu > 60,000 square miles were signed away to US Gov’t Guaranteed hunting, fishing, travel rights off reservations on traditional lands Creation of reservations in ID, OR and part of WA

1860 Gold is found on Nez Perce territory -> more American settlers enter Nez Perce lands

1863 Treaty Part of reservation was declared open to settlers Wallowa Valley land was sold to US Gov’t

Nez Perce War of 1877 May 1877: removal of all Nimiipuu, horses, cattle from

Wallowa Valley to reservation in Lapwai, ID

Deadline: 30 days to move -> leads to tension

Revenge by small group of Nimiipuu for murder of elderly Nimiipuu leads to war White Bird Battle: first battle of war, US Army lost Bear Paw: last battle of war Surrender: 418 Nimiipuu taken prisoners to OK

Reservation

October 5, 1877: Chief Joseph’s famous surrender speech

I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say no and yes. He who led the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. No one know where they are - Perhaps they are freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My heart is sad and sick. From where the sun now stands

 

I will fight no more forever.

Chief Joseph (1840- 1904)

Surrender Speech by Chief Joseph, 1877

Nez Perce Flight

Nez Perce Leaders

Old Chief Joseph Chief Joseph

Quotes“You might as well expect the rivers to run backwards as that any man who has been born free should be contented penned up and denied liberty…Let me be a free man – free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade, where I choose…free to think and act and talk to myself.”

“Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country. Now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father’s grave.”

“I buried him [his father] in that beautiful valley of the winding waters. I love that land more than all the rest of the world. A man who would not love his father’s grave is worse than a wild animal.”

--Chief Joseph--

Quotes Continued“Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country. Now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father’s grave.”

--Chief Joseph--

“The Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise. They abstained from scalping; let captive women go free; did not commit indiscriminate murder of peaceful families; which is usual, and fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications.”

--General Sherman--

Questions/Issues

Stress on War of 1877 and Chief Joseph Dawes Act Relationship between Nez Perce of the

Colville Reservation in WA and the Nez Perce Reservation in ID.

Nez Perce Secondary Resources

Greene, Jerome A. Nez Perce Summer 1877, The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis, Montana Historical Society Press, Helena, Montana, 2000, 554p.

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

Baird Lynn and Baird David. In Nez Perce Country, Accounts of the Bitterroots and the Clearwater after Lewis and Clark, University of Idaho Press, Year, 2003.

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

Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native Americans Tribes, Checkmark Books, New York, 1991.

Nez Perce Primary Resources Baird, Dennis. The Nez Perce Nation Divided, First Accounts of Events

Leading to the 1863 Treaty, University of Idaho Press, 2002.

Calloway, Colin G. First Peoples, A Documentary Survey Of American Indian History, Bedford St Martin’s, Boston and New York, 2004.

Wilfong, Cheryl. Following the Nez Perce Trail: A Guide To the Ne-Me-Poo National Historic Trail with Eyewitness Account, Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 1990.

Lewis, Meriwether and Clark, William. The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery, University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Indian Country Today, The Nation’s Leading American Indian News Source.

Additional Resources Books:

Aoki, Haruo. Nez Perce Dictionary, University of California Press, 1993.

Aoki, Haruo and Walker, Deward E. Nez Perce Oral Narratives, University of California Press, 1989

Gay, Jane E. With the Nez Perces: Alice Fletcher in the Field, 1889-1892, University of Nebraska Press, 1987.

Joseph, Alvin M., Jr. 500 Nations, An Illustrated History of North American Indians, Gramercy Books, New York, 1994.

Hirschfelder, Arlene and Molin, Paulette. Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, Checkmark Books, New York, 2001.

Additional Resources Continued Video:

PBS series Lewis & Clark: The Corps of Discovery, directed by Ken Burns.

Free Loan Video from the Nez Perce Historic Park “Landscape from History”.

PBS series The West: Fight No More Forever, directed by Ken Burns.

WWW:www.nezperce.org (Official Tribal Website) www.nps.gov/nepe (Nez Perce Historic Park)www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/native/nez.html (Lewis & Clark expedition)www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.htm (Chief Joseph)http://chiefjosephfoundation.idesignoffice.net (Chief Joseph Foundation)