Nez Perce History

It is not easy to get much reliable history in that indefinite misty period laying between the settling of the Nez Perce in the Kamiah Valley and thecoming of Lewis and Clark about a hundred years ago. However it is plain to see that this whole Western coast had been divided among themselves. (Indians.) The Nez Perce claimed all land laying between the Blue and Bitter Root Mountains. The Buffalow country (Montana) was common hunting ground. I might say common battle ground. Where they were yearly destroying themselves. each other. The Nez Perce and Sioux always fought on sight. Pe sa kulkt (Cut throats) is the Nez Perce name for Sioux. Tuelkan (enemy) for the Shoshones - What changes the Lord hath wrought! The Nez Perce land was rich in its provisions for the people, compared to that of many of (some of) the other tribes. Its kamash and kouse fields were broad prairies. As the Weippe Kamas Prairie and the region around Moscow. The Salmon and Clear Water furnished fish, the mountains, game The men were responsible for the family meat, the women for the roots and berries, but in times of failure of or even scarcity, famine stared them in the face. On the hunt it was days with out food, then a feast. It was especially the industry of the women in drying and storeing away for Winter that kept them from feeling the pinch of poverty at any time. A time was when all the burdens were borne upon the peoples backs. How rich they felt afterward when the dog trotted through forests carrying as much as 50lb on their backs. brighter, better days came when they got a few horses from the Shoshones. Afraid of them at first, as they were in later years of the cat. or pitch pitch, this was the sound of the [illegible] pussy pussy - of the Whites, much serious trouble grew with the multiplication of the horses. Snakes or Shoshones constantly skirmishing around to steal their precious horses. Before going on the hunt or to fish a leader was chosen. to whom they were expected to give implicit obedience. In their best days they had seventy five villages all situated on streams A group on one stream. Each Village had its chief or leader. the head chiefs Village might be considered the metropolis of the group Villages farthest out from the mouth of the streams were in danger from incursions of the enemy. As the upper village on the Snake was entirely destroyed with the exception of two women & one man. On the same river near Assotin lived a boastful man named Skin a way Who led out a band of six or seven hundred of his brethren against the Snakes. not one ever returned to tell the tale They usually spent the winter months at home in their own pleasant valley homes. lived in long houses.built of sticks, grass or skins with superscripted the fires in the centre. Lewis & Clark tell of seeing such a one up in the Kamiah Valley 150 ft long with 24 fires in it. Another as large at the mouth of the Pot Latch, They spoke not of so many rooms in a house but of so many fires, if the families were small several families would use the same fire. no partitions of course no privacy. Parents had little to do with the training of the children. If discipline were needed the chief was appealed to. Who had his band whipper ready to administer the punishment decided upon. The band supplanted the family. This custom prevailed until the Gospel came when the lands were lost in the individual homes & families. The Chiefs power then began to wane Elder Billy Williams made a large map from memory of the land from Blue to B root mts locating & naming the 75 villages. Miss Fletcher placed this map in Harvard Museum. During these earlier ages what ever religion they may have had to start with had degenerated into a kind of devil worship in which the Tewats or sorcerers played a prominent part. Their enchantments. their dreaming and drumming and sleight of hand performances with dancing makes it hard to classify them worship . mixed up with these abominations here were customs which must have come from the children of Jacob. their chiefs were a kind of priests, who received the first fruits of the land and fish. an unmarried man married his brothers widow Indeed no other book is so easy for them to understand as the Old Testament. Ah! so we used to do is often heard while studying it. Sun worship and earth Worship was started among them after the coming of the King George Men Hudson Bay Co. Lewis & Clark visit Ante dates theirs by several years. Lewis & Clark. on Sep. 20 1805 surprised three little Nez Perce boys on the We ippe (their best Kamas ground) the boys ran and hid, no wonder the first white face ever seen this side. Lewis, Clark & Co. had Just come in from the We ippe from the Lolo Lolo trail. notwithstanding the statement of some. that they cross the mt be were on the other trail. They used both trails - Nez Perce yet, if they want to cross the mts. go out from Kamiah by way of the We ippe on the Lolo Lolo trail. follow it for a distance then strike across on a ridge for the Elk City trail - L & C met some of the people they were anxious to make canoes And pass down the river. this they did a little above the north Fork where the little R. R. town of Orion now stands. They found the Choponish as they mispronounced it Chip ni (pa lou Pierced noses) from some of their noses dangles a wampum. N. P. guided them down the river as well as back over the Mts. They found them in skin dresses, womens skirt reaching to the ankles, mens shorter with leggins.with as many ornaments as could be found. bears claw. necklaces & so on. L. & C. did not much admire there disposition on first acquaintance or going down. thought them selfish, avericious & so on. but upon there return in spring of 1806, and after camping among them for more than a month in the Kamiah Valley (waiting for the snow to go off the mountain) Where they were treated as honored guests bringing them the best of their food & fattest horses to slay and eat. L. C company black cook and all had become lovers of horse flesh. Chief" Black Eagle or Speaking Eagle. did not fail to observe the little points of elliquett, [etiquette]. received them under the flag they had sent him the year before when they passed down , for Eagle was away at that time L. & C. could never after praise the Nez P enough for their kindness to them, even gave them the needed horses & guided them back over the mountains as they had guided them down the river (going out on the Lolo trail as they came in). Not any difficulty in to traceing the camping and the journeyings of these travelers. through Nez Perce land. How the Nez Perces loved & trusted them! is seen when they followed their trail back, to have them explain difficulties in their minds about religion 26 years after they had been here! Oh that visit what a fertile subject it has been for camp fire stories for 100 years.

Here is one of the stories. Wat-ku-ese, Not very long before the coming of Lewis and Clark. in some of the many battles on the in Buffalo Country
(Montana) a Nez Perce a woman named Wat ku ese was taken prisoner or captive on their return to their own land. fought with still another tribe, the Nez Perce woman was again captured, and carried farther and farther away; and it was while there, still a captive, she was the first Nez Perce to look upon a white face. We are inclined to think that she was taken some where near the Red River Settlement.

Sometime afterwards, with her child upon her back, she made her escape. And along the way met with much kindness from the Whites, Whom she called the So-yap. po. (or the crowned ones because of the hat) Her child died, she burried it by the way into the flatheads country. Where she was so fortunate as to find some of the Nez Perce who brought her home, a poor, diseased woman. She had much to tell about the strange people with white skins and light eyes who had been so kind to her. Later on this poor woman was with her Nez P. friends on their best kamas ground (the Weippe) When Lewis and Clark came over the Lolo trail and surprised them there. The first impulse of the Nez Perce was to kill them (the white strangers) Wat ku ese lay dying in her tent, heard the talk about the strange people on the ground. She at once began to plead for them, saying Do them no harm, for they are the So yappo. Crowned ones, who were so kind to me. Do not be afraid of them; go near to them. Cautiously they approached the whites shook hands with them; this they had never seen (done) before, And in surprise said to one another. "They dandle Us." Wat ku ese died that day, she had lived long enough to keep Lewis & Clark from being killed by the savage Nez Perce. The fear of the pale faces soon vanished and they became friends. Up till the time of the coming of L & C. Indeed not until af ter the coming in of the King George men or Hudson Bay Co. some years after L. & C did the Nez Perce have any idea of the worship of God. So if L & C. tried to direct their darkened minds into the Light - it was at the time a failure - but when they in their gropeing for an object to worship, began the sun worship They recalled the many Jestures of L & C. as well as of the King George men. Saying to each other "They wanted to teach us that the sun is the God to worship, but they had no Interpreter And we could not understand. Now We know the Sun is Our Father the earth our Mother. The Hudson Bay. Co. had a station for the fur trade in the Kamiah Valley on the Now Kip ka pel i kan farm. They met them at Ft Colville and at Walla Walla. The Sun pole was set in near the present site of Walla Walla there yearly they met for the great sun dance. Elder Billy Williams told me many a time he danced around the pole. with great fear lest he touch the pole and die.

The Mother earth shared in the honors with the Sun Father. Their sun worship was at stated times or feasts, as when the fish much like the Salmon.
came up and entered the little streams in the spring, And When the first spring root was fit to eat. Sewith. The head chief or priest would call the
people of his group of villiages to Worship - (Feast of First fruits) The worshipers with heads bowed heads formed a circle. The priest held up the fish to the Sun turning it in the direction the Sun appears to move around the earth. All chanting as he turned. Oh Father bless the fish bless Us - Then they dug a hole placed the fish in it covered it with earth, Chanting Oh Mother bless the fish, bless us.

Other feasts were observed when the deer were plenty, when the berries were ripe [illegible]. All worship had dancing in it. In after years they were astonished at their own dullness. in when it only meant 4 July & Thanksgiving the King George men wanted to start among them. The grace before eating was by turning the vessell around as the Sun. The sun was consulted in this way before going out to hunt there horses, before going on the hunt So acknowledged him at all times. All the products of the earth were his children born of the earth Of course Joseph would not sell his Mother or hurt her with a plow shear.

The Nez Perce were not long satisfied with Sun worship. for rumers were beginning to reach their ears. that there was another greater than the Sun. Who made both the Sun and the earth. Just from which direction they got this word first is hard to tell, whether from the King George men Trappers Jesuit Priests on the upper Columbia or from Iroquois Indians in the Buffalo country - At all events the more they heard the more troubled their hearts became with there own way of worship - Many a yearly gathering a council was closed with If we could find the trail of L. & C. and follow it. we would come to the light or truth. They had heard also that the white man had a book from heaven that told the right way to worship At last 25 years after L. & C. had been here they finished their minds (decided) to seek for the Light. Elder Billy Williams who will remember the going out, gave Me the following statement Billy about 10 year old at the going out.

[The story is continued in the History of Mission Work and Workers section of the journal.]