Nez Perce

The Nez Perce ( NEZ-purse); autonym in Nez Perce: nimíipuu, meaning 'we, the people') are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of their ancestral lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest. This region has been occupied for at least 11,500 years. Members of the Sahaptin language group, the Nimíipuu were the dominant people of the Columbia Plateau for much of that time, especially after acquiring the horses that led them to breed the Appaloosa horse in the 18th century. Appaloosa horses were the only horses generally available in that time period. Prior to first contact with European colonial people the Nimíipuu were economically and culturally influential in trade and war, interacting with other indigenous nations in a vast network from the western shores of Oregon and Washington, the high plains of Montana, and the northern Great Basin in southern Idaho and northern Nevada. French explorers and trappers indiscriminately used and popularized the name "Nez Percé" for the Nimíipuu and nearby Chinook. The name translates as "pierced nose", but only the Chinook used that form of body modification. Cut off from most of their horticultural sites throughout the Camas Prairie by an 1863 treaty (subsequently known as the "Thief Treaty" or "Steal Treaty" among the Nimíipuu), confinement to reservations in Idaho, Washington and Oklahoma Indian Territory after the Nez Perce War of 1877, and Dawes Act of 1887 land allotments, the Nez Perce remain as a distinct culture and political economic influence within and outside their reservation. As a federally recognized tribe, the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho govern their Native reservation in Idaho through a central government headquartered in Lapwai known as the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NPTEC). They are one of five federally recognized tribes in the state...