Meeting up with the Nez Perce on the west side of Lolo Pass was one of the best things that happened to the Corps of Discovery. They rested, gained their strength, and started leaning about how to make the canoes that would help them navigate the next leg of their expedition. Chief Twisted Hair and another chief went with them and helped them meet more tribes along the way. The Nez Perce also agreed to keep their horses healthy for the Corps’ return trip over Lolo Pass and on home. The quotes starting with bold dates are from our photographic journey book.
September 20 – 29, 1805. “The ruggedness of the country eased somewhat and finally the explorers left it behind when they reached Weippe Prairie. Here they met with the hospitable Nez Perce, who supplied the explorers with dried salmon and flour made from camas root. During the time spent with the Nez Perce, Lewis and Clark learned of a river suitable for boat travel not far away.
On September 20, 1805, Clark wrote, “. . . a level rich open plain.”
The Nez Perce fed the starving corps and helped them reach the Clearwater River [their path to the Pacific Ocean]. The members of the Corps of Discovery, unaccustomed to the local foods, became very ill.
The sudden changes in diet—from buffalo, elk, and deer meat on the Missouri, to almost nothing over Lolo Trail, to roots and oil fish—had disastrous effects. The men suffered from vomiting and painful intestinal gas for several days and were “Scercely able to ride on a jentle horse.”
From Undaunted Courage, “In short, for over a week the expedition resembled a hospital ward for the critically ill more than it did a platoon of fighting men.”
At Canoe Camp [next post], the Nez Perce helped Lewis and Clark build canoes that would carry them on the final leg of their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
more about the Nez Perce
In spring, summer, and fall, Nez Perce lived in portable houses made of tanned hides or woven mats. The mats, made of tule (a bulrush), could be rolled up for transporting.
Tule stalks repel water and have innumerable tiny air pockets that provide insulation. These mats were also handy as floor coverings, roll-up tables, sleeping mats, and more.
More poles were leaned against the ridgepoles and the whole structure was covered with layers of mats. Numerous doors were placed along the sides. Families lived together and their fire pits were spaced about ten feet apart down the center of the house. Longhouses sometimes measured 150 feet long and housed up to fifty families.
When the Corps arrived at Weippe Prairie, Nez Perce women were gathering roots for winter storage. In late summer, wild camas roots are sweet and rich in protein.
Nez Perce women also harvested many other roots, including wild onion, wild carrot, and biscuit-root [member of the carrot family[.
The Nez Perce blended the best of two worlds. They hunted and fished in the valleys of the Columbia Plateau and ventured east across the mountains to hunt buffalo on the Plains.
They formed alliances with Plains tribes, the Crow, the Salish and Pend d’Oreille, and their Columbia Plateau neighbors to raid, capture horses, and count coups on their enemies. Nez Perce horses were prized by raiders from many tribes.
Few Nez Perce had seen a white man before Lewis and Clark. They believed the captains’ promise of peace and trade and gave a pledge of friendship that lasted for generations. Impressed, Sergeant Patrick Gass described the Nez Perce as “most friendly, honest, and ingenuous.”
Lewis and Clark stayed with the Nez Perce for ten days in 1805 on their trip to the Pacific Ocean and again in 1806 during their return trip.
saved by a former captive
The Nez Perce tell of an old woman named “Lost and Was Found,” who convinced her people not to harm the explores. She had been captured by the Blackfeet raiders in the 1700s and sold to a white trader who treated her kindly.
origin of their name
Oral history among the Nez Prce of today suggests their ancestors had two distinct names for themselves: “the people” and “Walking out People.” The second name in their language was hard to pronounce, even when Lewis and Clark attempted to spell it phonetically.
Because the motion was made close to their noses and because the captains did see some people in the village with pierced noses (most likely visiting Indians from other tribes), the hard-to-say name was incorrectly translated by the captains to mean “Pierced Noses.”
French-speaking trappers soon translated Pierced Noses into French and pronounced it in an anglicized way to nezz purse.
horse breeders
The Nez Perce bred beautiful horses. Raised on the lush grasses of the Columbia Plateau, the herds were selectively bred for strength, endurance, intelligence, and sure-footedness.
Not surprisingly, Nez Perce possessed elaborate horse gear made of rawhide, horse hair, bone, and antler that were decorated with dyes, porcupine quills, and beads.
Their horses were traded throughout the Plains, and their herds were the target of horse raiders from many tribes.
middlemen in the trade network
Nez Perce were middlemen who exchanged goods between the Coastal Indians and the Plains Indians. They acquired goods from the coast at mid-summer trade fairs at The Dalles [future post] and nearby Celilo Falls and traded them to the Plains Indians in buffalo country. It was common for Plains Indians to be seen wearing dentalium shell decorations, most likely acquired from the Pacific by way of the Nez Perce. [From Buffalo’s Fire website, “These are smooth, white shells that were more than decorative. They were currency, status symbols and sacred objects.”]
return trip
On their return trip, they left the river at Canoe Camp and took a more southern, easier route with their canoes to meet the Nez Perce at Weippe Prairie to pick up their horses and go back over the Lolo Pass.
next post
At Canoe Camp, the Nez Perce helped Lewis and Clark build canoes that would carry them on the final leg of their journey to the Pacific Ocean.
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