Nez Perce

• CATEGORY: Tribe
• CULTURE AREA: Plateau
• LANGUAGE GROUP: Sahaptin
• PRIMARY LOCATION: Idaho
• POPULATION SIZE: 3,500 (2024 Nez Perce Tribe)

Nez Perce, the French word meaning “pierced nose,” is the name of one of the Sahaptin nations of Indigenous Americans located in contemporary Idaho. The term seems to be a misnomer, since few if any members of this Indigenous American Indian nation actually pierced their noses. The Nez Perce self-identify as the Nimiipuu.

The Nez Perce were the largest and most powerful component of the Sahaptin. “Sahaptin” (also spelled Shahaptin) is a collective term for a group of Indigenous American groups that share linguistic commonalities. Sahaptin is a branch of the Plateau Penutian language. The Sahaptin, as a collective group, inhabited an area that today is southwestern Washington, west-central Idaho, and northeastern Oregon. The Sahaptin may be divided into two major groupings: the western groups (Molala, Tenino, and Yakima) and the eastern groups (Nez Perce, Palouse, Cayuse, and Umatilla). The eastern and western groups differ culturally. The western Sahaptin constitute a loose confederation and are generally pacifistic. The eastern Sahaptin inter-marry, share stronger group relations, and tend to be more warlike than their western counterparts.

The Nez Perce themselves originally thrived along the lower Snake River and along its tributaries in what is now central and western Idaho, northwestern Oregon, and southwestern Washington. The staple food of the Nez Perce was dried salmon and other fish, as the Columbia River is the greatest producer of freshwater salmon in the world. In addition, their diet consisted of berries, roots, small game, deer, and elk. Housing consisted of both square houses and long A-frame communal sleeping rooms that could house up to thirty families and were approximately 150 feet in length. This living style, in addition to other customs and conventions of the Nez Perce, was influenced by the Plains culture; the Nez Perce were one of the easternmost Sahaptin nations.

During the eighteenth century, the Nez Perce became more involved in affairs with other Indigenous groups, including wars with Plains nations. This was attributable especially to the introduction of the horse around 1730. As a result, the Nez Perce participated in more distant hunting expeditions and trade with Plains Indigenous Americans beyond the Rockies. Frequently, the Nez Perce allied themselves with such groups as other Sahaptin groups and the Umatilla, Cayuse, Walla Walla, Flathead, Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene. At various times, the enemies of the Nez Perce included the Blackfoot, Shoshone, Bannock, Crow, and Gros Ventre. Along with a greater frequency of warfare, subsequent cultural adaptations such as war dances, equine tactics and maneuvers, and the introduction of the teee were ushered in.

The Nez Perce are particularly known for their selective breeding of horses to produce better stock. This resulted in raids upon the Nez Perce from Plains nations so that they could improve their own herds. This selective breeding facilitated more distant inter-Indigenous relations, of which the Nez Perce became a dominating force.

The first contact with European explorers and settlers in the early nineteenth century evidently affected the Nez Perce. Shortly after the expeditions of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark between 1810–15, traders and fur trappers flocked to the region of the Nez Perce. Later, missionaries began their influx. During the 1820s and 1830s, the Nez Perce themselves engaged in the fur trade. This prolonged contact with foreigners contributed to epidemics among the Nez Perce, whose numbers dropped to under 2,000 by 1850. This was a marked reduction in population compared with the early nineteenth-century census, yielding a population estimate of 6,000 for the Nez Perce.

In 1855, the Nez Perce, along with other Sahaptin nations, were pressured to sign a treaty which entitled them to a reservation consisting of various parts of their former ancestral land. Several reservations were formed for the Sahaptin peoples: Nez Perce Reservation, Colville Reservation, Yakima Reservation, Umatilla Reservation, and Warm Springs Reservation, plus other smaller reservations. Indigenous groups were frequently broken up and collected indiscriminately when placed on reservations. In contemporary times, it is difficult to distinguish among Sahaptin groups or determine the ancestral traditions that were original to each.

The Nez Perce condition considerably worsened in 1860 with the discovery of gold in the Salmon and Clearwater rivers. This event led to a redrawing of reservation boundaries in 1863 by US commissioners. With the loss of the Wallowa and Grande valleys, the acreage of the Nez Perce Reservation was reduced by an estimated three-fourths. There was an enormous influx of miners, settlers, and homesteaders into the area.

A period of increasing hostility and intolerance culminated in the Nez Perce War of 1877. A militant band of Nez Perce—numbering between 250 and 450—led by Chief Joseph and Looking Glass resisted US Army attempts to force them onto reservation land. The Nez Perce resistance held off 5,000 US military troops, headed by General Oliver O. Howard, for five months. On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph surrendered to the US forces, with each side having suffered approximately 250 casualties. The 1877 surrender took place near the Montana-Canada border. The Nez Perce were subsequently sent to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma, where many died from malaria.

In the 1970s, the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho consisted of a total population of 1,500 to 1,700. The reservation comprised 34,000 acres of tribal land and 53,000 acres of land for individual use. Many surviving Nez Perce left the Idaho reservation to join the general US populace. On the reservation, cultural traditions such as ceremonial dances and ceremonies of the Seven Drums Society are still observed. As mentioned above, the existing reservations containing Sahaptin peoples are somewhat syncretized, since many Indigenous nations were incorporated by force into the various reservations, not necessarily according to Indigenous group distinctions.

In the twenty-first century, the Nez Perce is a federally recognized Indigenous nation with over 3,500 enrolled members. They manage a 750,000-acre reservation in north-central Idaho. The Nez Perce actively work to preserve their culture, traditions, and the Nimipuutímt language. They operate a casino, among other business ventures. The Nez Perce practice natural resource management through an innovative fish hatchery program and unique river drainage management. 

Bibliography

“About.” Nez Perce Tribe, nezperce.org/about. Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.

Carson, Kevin. The Long Journey of the Nez Perce: A Battle History from Cottonwood to the Bear Paw. Westholme, 2021.

Lavender, David S. Let Me Be Free: The Nez Perce Tragedy. U of Oklahoma P, 1999.

“Nez Perce Cultural Camp.” nimipuutímt, www.nimipuutimt.org/nez-perce-cultural-camp.html. Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.

Pinkham, Allen, et al. Lewis and Clark among the Nez Perce: Strangers in the Land of the Nimiipuu. The Dakota Inst. P of the Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, 2022.

"Sahaptin (Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit)." Omniglot, 23 Apr. 2021, www.omniglot.com/writing/sahaptin.htm. Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.

US National Park Service. Nez Perce Country. US Dept. of the Interior, 1983.

West, Elliott. The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story. Oxford UP, 2009.

Westmoreland, Ingrid P. “Nez Perce - The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.” Oklahoma Historical Society, www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=NE015. Accessed 14 Nov. 2024.