The Nez Perce are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region has been occupied for at least 11,500 years.
Lewis County is a county located in the north central region of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,533, making it the fourth-least populous county in Idaho. The county seat is Nezperce, and Kamiah is the largest city. Partitioned from Nez Perce County and established in 1911, it was named after the explorer Meriwether Lewis. Most of the county is within the Nez Perce Indian Reservation, though Native Americans comprise less than 6% of the county population. Similar to the opening of lands in Oklahoma, the U.S. government opened the reservation for white settlement in November 1895. The proclamation had been signed less than two weeks earlier by President Cleveland.
Idaho County is a county in the U.S. state of Idaho, and the largest by area in the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,541. The county seat is Grangeville. Previous county seats of the area were Florence (1864–68), Washington (1868–75), and Mount Idaho (1875–1902).
Kamiah is a city in Lewis and Idaho counties in the U.S. state of Idaho. The largest city in Lewis County, it extends only a small distance into Idaho County, south of Lawyer Creek. The population was 1,295 at the 2010 census, up from 1,160 in 2000. The city lies in the narrow valley of the Clearwater River; downstream are Orofino and Lewiston, at the confluence with the Snake River.
Lolo Pass, elevation 5,233 feet (1,595 m), is a mountain pass in the western United States, in the Bitterroot Range of the northern Rocky Mountains. It is on the border between the states of Montana and Idaho, approximately forty miles (65 km) west-southwest of Missoula, Montana.
The Nez Perce National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park comprising 38 sites located across the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, which include traditional aboriginal lands of the Nez Perce people. The sites are strongly associated with the resistance of Chief Joseph and his band, who in June 1877 migrated from Oregon in an attempt to reach freedom in Canada and avoid being forced on to a reservation. They were pursued by U.S. Army cavalry forces and fought numerous skirmishes against them during the so-called Nez Perce War, which eventually ended with Chief Joseph's surrender in the Montana Territory.
The Nez Perce National Forest is a 4,000,000-acre (16,000 km2) United States National Forest located in west-central Idaho. The forest is bounded on the east by the state of Montana, on the north by the Clearwater National Forest, on the west by a portion of the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest and on the south by the Payette National Forest.
Clearwater National Forest with headquarters on the Nez Perce Reservation at Kamiah is located in North Central Idaho in the northwestern United States. The forest is bounded on the east by the state of Montana, on the north by the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, and on the south and west by the Nez Perce National Forest and Palouse Prairie.
Henry Harmon Spalding (1803–1874) and his wife Eliza Hart Spalding (1807–1851) were prominent Presbyterian missionaries and educators working primarily with the Nez Perce in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The Spaldings and their fellow missionaries were among the earliest Americans to travel across the western plains, through the Rocky Mountains and into the lands of the Pacific Northwest to their religious missions in what would become the states of Idaho and Washington. Their missionary party of five, including Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa and William H. Gray, joined with a group of fur traders to create the first wagon train along the Oregon Trail.
This is a directory of properties and districts included among the National Register of Historic Places listings in Idaho. There are approximately 1,000 sites in Idaho listed on the National Register. Each of the state's 44 counties has at least one listing on the National Register.
The Camas Meadows Battle Sites, also known as Camas Meadows Camp and Battle Sites, are two sites important to the Battle of Camas Creek, fought August 20, 1877 between members of the Nez Perce tribe and troops of the United States Army. The Nez Perce captured about 150 horses and mules from a campsite of the pursuing army, and for several hours besieged a detachment sent to recover them at a second site. The two sites, each about 40 acres (16 ha) in size, are about 5 miles (8.0 km) apart in Clark County, Idaho. They were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, and are now part of Nez Perce National Historical Park, a collection of sites important in Nez Perce history.
Weippe Prairie is a "beautiful upland prairie field of about two by three miles bordered by farmland made from cleared pine forests" at 3,000 feet elevation in Clearwater County, Idaho, at Weippe, Idaho. Camas flowers grow well there, and attracted native gatherers of the camas roots. It is the location in Idaho where the Lewis and Clark Expedition emerged from crossing the Bitterroot Mountains on the Lolo Trail and first met the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Nez Perce County, Idaho.
The First Presbyterian Church at Locust and 1st Street, East in Lapwai, Idaho is a historic Presbyterian church built in 1909. It was added to the National Register in 1980.
The Jurden Henry Elfers Barn and Field is a historic site located on the south bank of John Day Creek, .33 miles (0.53 km) east of U.S. Route 95 and north of Lucile, Idaho. The barn and field were the site of a raid by members of the Nez Perce tribe in 1877. White settlers had forced the Nez Perce to live on a reservation at Lapwai, and a group of young men from the tribe sought revenge against the settlers. The men raided several sites along the Salmon River, including the Elfers' ranch. During their raid on the ranch, the Nez Perce killed Jurden Henry Elfers, his nephew Henry "Harry" Burn Beckrodge, and hired worker Robert Bland, who were working at the barn and field at the time. The men also stole several horses and a rifle from the property. The raid was one of the main causes of the Nez Perce War, as soldiers at Fort Lapwai responded to the raids by attacking Chief Joseph's camp. The barn and field are one of the few surviving sites connected to the events leading to the start of the war.
The Snake River Archaeological District is an archaeological area located in Nez Perce County, Idaho, and Asotin County, Washington, and centered on the Snake River, which divides the two states. The area includes a number of sites inhabited by the Nez Perce people, who used it as a fishing ground and a winter campsite. Settlement in the area stretches from roughly 6000 B.C. to the 20th century A.D. Several hundred pictographs are part of the area, usually painted at village sites.
Hallalhotsoot, also Hal-hal-tlos-tsot or "Lawyer" was a leader of the Niimíipu and among its most famous, after Chief Joseph. He was the son of Twisted Hair, who welcomed and befriended the exhausted Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805. His mother was a Flathead woman. Lawyer learned the languages of his parents and knew some English.
Tolo Lake is a shallow, natural lake in camas prairie in Idaho County, Idaho, United States. It is about 35 acres (14 ha) in size. An area of about 206 acres (83 ha) including the lake was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
Susan Law McBeth was the Presbyterian missionary to American Indians and author. She worked among the Choctaw in Indian Territory and, for two decades, among the Nez Perce in Idaho. She was fondly called as "little mother” by the Nez Perce.
