Nez Perce Tribe history

Just six years after the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark visited the Nez Percé in 1805, fur traders and trappers began penetrating the area; they were followed later by missionaries.

1812: A trading post known as Spokane House was built near the confluence of Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers

1825: The Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver as a trading post

At the request of the Nez Percé, a Methodist minister named Henry Spalding established a mission near Lapwai in 1836.

1843: The first major migration along the Oregon Trail took place in 1843 which led to violent conflicts with the white settlers who traveled along the Oregon trail in wagon trains.

Young Looking Glass was appointed a war leader for the Nez Percé in 1848.

The advance of white settlers into the Pacific Northwest after 1850 caused the United States to press the Native Americans of the region to surrender their lands and accept resettlement on small and often unattractive reservations.

1853: Washington Territory was established, dividing the Nez Perce homeland in two parts

During the 1855 treaty negotiations at Walla Walla, the Tribe insisted on retaining these inherent rights.

1860: The discovery of gold in Pierce, Idaho prompted an influx of white prospectors on the Nez Perce territory

1861: Nez Perce Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was established

1862: An estimated $7-10 million in gold was taken from Nez Perce lands by more than 15,000 gold prospectors

Instead of protecting the reservation from encroachment, the federal government forced the Tribe into a second treaty in 1863, which reduced the reservation to about 750,000 acres.

Upon the death of Old Chief Joseph in 1871 his son, Young Chief Joseph, took over leadership of the Wallowa band.

In 1873 the government tried to create a Wallowa reservation for Joseph's band, but abandoned the attempt two years later under pressure from the white settlers.

1877: October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph was forced to surrender.

Chief Joseph visited the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., in January 1879 and proposed to surrender all Nez Perce claims in the Northwest in exchange for land in Indian Territory and a $250,000 bonus.

Not until 1885 were he and the remnants of his tribe allowed to go to a reservation in Washington—though still in exile from their valley.

In 1886, nine years after his death, whites opened his grave and displayed his skull in a dental office.

Under the General Allotment Act of 1887, the United States government divided the reservation into relatively small allotments and assigned them to individual tribal members.

By 1893, reservation lands not allotted were deemed excess and sold to non-Indians.

1904: Chief Joseph died on 21 September 1904 and was buried in Nespelem, Washington

In 1923, the non-traditionalists of the tribe, seeking an elective form of government, formed the Nez Percé Home and Farm Association, with James Stuart as the first president.

One book, the 1934 Nez Percé Texts, contained traditional stories of the tribe and was published by the prestigious Columbia University Press.

Internationally recognized, Phinney received an honorary degree from the Russian Academy of Science in Leningrad as well as the Indian Council Fire Award in 1946.

The Flight of the Nez Percé. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967.

Lapwai, ID: Nez Percé Tribe of Idaho, 1973.

Trafzer, Clifford E. The Nez Percé. New York: Chelsea House, 1992.

The Nez Percé. Brookfield, Conneticut: The Milbrook Press 1994.