Sepia Saturday: The Nez Perce
My grandfather, whose childhood years were spent in Wallowa County, Oregon, recalled that when he was a child, he used to see members of the Nez Percé tribe in the area, their summer hunting grounds. You may or may not know that the Nez Percé had been granted reservation lands in 1855 by the Washington Territory's territorial governor, Isaac Stevens. The land reserved for the tribe encompassed their traditional hunting lands, including the Wallowa Valley. But as settlement by whites continued and gold was found, the incentive to honor that treaty diminished. The Nez Percé were offered a much smaller reservation centered around Lapwai, Idaho with schools, a hospital and financial rewards. In exchange, they had to cede their hunting lands. Some of the tribal chiefs agreed, but Chief Joseph (1840 - 1904) refused. Unable come to an agreement with the U.S. government, the non-treaty bands were thr...
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