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.
The Snake River is a major river in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States. About 1,080 miles (1,740 km) long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Beginning in Yellowstone National Park, western Wyoming, it flows across the arid Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, the rugged Hells Canyon on the borders of Idaho, Oregon and Washington, and finally the rolling Palouse Hills of southeast Washington. It joins the Columbia River just downstream from the Tri-Cities, Washington, in the southern Columbia Basin.
Lewiston is a city and the county seat of Nez Perce County, Idaho, United States, in the state's north central region. It is the third-largest city in the northern Idaho region, behind Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene, and the twelfth-largest in the state. Lewiston is the principal city of the Lewiston, ID-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Nez Perce County and Asotin County, Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population of Lewiston was 34,203, up from 31,894 in 2010.
Hells Canyon is a ten-mile-wide (16 km) canyon in the Western United States, located along the border of eastern Oregon, western Idaho, and a small section of eastern Washington. It is part of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area which is also located in part of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. It is North America's deepest river gorge at 7,993 feet (2,436 m), running deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
The Grande Ronde River is a 210-mile (340 km) long tributary of the Snake River, flowing through northeast Oregon and southeast Washington in the United States. Its watershed is situated in the eastern Columbia Plateau, bounded by the Blue Mountains and Wallowa Mountains to the west of Hells Canyon. The river flows generally northeast from its forested headwaters west of La Grande, Oregon, through the agricultural Grande Ronde Valley in its middle course, and through rugged canyons cut from ancient basalt lava flows in its lower course. While it joins the Snake River upstream of Asotin, Washington, more than 90 percent of the river's watershed is in Oregon.
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.
Leonard Beck Jordan was an American politician who served as the 23rd governor of Idaho and a United States Senator for over ten years.
The Hells Canyon Wilderness is a wilderness area in the western United States, in Idaho and Oregon. Created 49 years ago in 1975, the Wilderness is managed by both the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service and contains some of the most spectacular sections of the Snake River as it winds its way through Hells Canyon, North America's deepest river gorge and one of the deepest gorges on Earth. The Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984 added additional acreage and currently the area protects a total area of 217,927 acres (88,192 ha). It lies entirely within the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area except for a small 946-acre (383 ha) plot in southeastern Wallowa County, Oregon which is administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The area that is administered by the Forest Service consists of portions of the Wallowa, Nez Perce, Payette, and Whitman National Forests.
Fields Spring State Park is a 828-acre (3.35 km2) public recreation area in the northwest United States, located in southeastern Washington on State Route 129, four miles (6 km), south of Anatone.
The Imnaha River is a 73.3-mile-long (118.0 km) tributary of the Snake River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Flowing generally east near the headwaters and then north through Wallowa County, the entire river is designated Wild and Scenic. It follows a geologic fault to the Snake River, and in addition to land in the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest and private land, its corridor includes parts of three special management areas: the Eagle Cap Wilderness, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, and Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. The Imnaha flows by the unincorporated community of Imnaha, the only settlement along its course, and enters the Snake River roughly 4 miles (6 km) from the larger river's confluence with the Salmon River of Idaho and 192 miles (309 km) from its confluence with the Columbia River.
The Wallowa–Whitman National Forest is a United States National Forest in the U.S. states of Oregon and Idaho. Formed upon the merger of the Wallowa and Whitman national forests in 1954, it is located in the northeastern corner of Oregon, in Wallowa, Baker, Union, Grant, and Umatilla counties, and includes small areas in Nez Perce and Idaho counties in Idaho. The forest is named for the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce people, who originally lived in the area, and Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, Presbyterian missionaries who settled just to the north in 1836. Forest headquarters are located in Baker City, Oregon with ranger districts in La Grande, Joseph and Baker City.
Chinese Massacre Cove is an area along the Snake River in Wallowa County, Oregon, United States. It is located in the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest and the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, upriver from the Snake's confluence with the Imnaha River. In May 1887, it was the location of the Hells Canyon Massacre, where up to thirty-four Chinese gold miners were ambushed, murdered, and robbed.
State Route 129 (SR 129) is a state highway in Asotin County, Washington, United States. It travels north–south at the southeastern corner of the state, connecting with Oregon Route 3 (OR 3) at the Oregon state line south of Anatone. The 43-mile (69 km) highway then follows the Snake River, which marks the Idaho state border, north to Clarkston and terminates at U.S. Route 12 (US 12). SR 129 also has a short spur route that connects to a separate intersection with US 12 in Clarkston.
The Burnt River is a 98-mile-long (158 km) tributary of the Snake River in eastern Oregon, United States. It enters the Snake near Huntington at a point upstream of the Powder River and downstream of the Malheur River, slightly more than 327 miles (526 km) from the Snake's confluence with the Columbia River. Draining 1,090 square miles (2,800 km2), it flows predominantly west to east.
The U.S. state of Idaho borders six other U.S. states and one Canadian province. The states of Washington and Oregon are to the west, Nevada and Utah are to the south, and Montana and Wyoming are to the east. Idaho also shares a short border with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north.
Hells Canyon Scenic Byway is a designated All-American Road in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the northeast corner of Oregon and comprises Oregon Route 82, Oregon Route 350, Forest Roads 39 and 3365, and most of Oregon Route 86. From the west, the byway begins at the intersection of Oregon Route 82 and Interstate 84 near La Grande and ends near Baker City, at the junction of Interstate 84 and Oregon Route 86. It is 218.4 miles (351.5 km) long.
The Blue Mountains ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Pacific Northwest, mainly in the state of Oregon, with small areas over the state border in Idaho and southeastern Washington. It is also contiguous with the World Wildlife Fund's Blue Mountain forests ecoregion.
The Eagle Valley is a farming and timber-producing region in northeastern Oregon in the United States.
Imhaha was a stern-wheel steamboat which operated on the Snake River in the Pacific Northwest in 1903. The steamer was built, launched, placed in service, and wrecked within a single year. The rapids on the Snake river had only rarely been surmounted by a steamboat, and generally only with the aid of a steel cable for lining used to winch the entire boat upstream through the rapids. After only a few trips, Imnaha was destroyed in Mountain Sheep rapids, just downstream from the mining settlement of Eureka, on the Oregon side of the river.
Janet Friedman was an American archaeologist who made major contributions to cultural resource management. She was also an early contributor to the development of wet site archaeology. As head archaeologist for the United States Forest Service (USFS) and later as Federal Preservation Officer for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and member of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), Friedman was actively involved in developing the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 (ARPA) from its naissance. She was a member of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), the Women's Council on Energy and the Environment, and the Mid-Atlantic Archaeological Conference and, as one of the first female students in Washington State University's (WSU) Anthropology doctoral program, she actively mentored women in cultural and environmental sciences throughout her career, promoting gender equality in the field.
