page_title: Nez Perce people
hierarchical_section_title: Nez Perce people
caption_attribution_description: English: Description H'co-a-h'co-a-h'cotes-min George Catlin painted this portrait of No Horns on His Head and Rabbit’s Skin Leggings (see 1985.66.145), both Nez Perce braves, as a pair and described his subjects in these words: “These two men, when I painted them, were in beautiful Sioux dresses . . . [they] were part of a delegation that came across the Rocky Mountains to St. Louis . . .” Catlin noted that he had traveled two thousand miles with these braves “towards their own country,” and during that time had become “much pleased with their manners and dispositions.” (Catlin, Letters and Notes, vol. 2, no. 48, 1841; reprint 1973)
context_page_description: The Nez Perce are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.
  Members of the Sahaptin language group, the Niimíipuu 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.
  Prior to "first contact" with Western civilization the Nimiipuu 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 Niimíipuu and nearby Chinook. The name translates as "pierced nose", but only the Chinook used that form of body modification.
  Today they are a federally recognized tribe, the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, and govern their Indian reservation in Idaho through a central government headquartered in Lapwai, Idaho known as the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee.
context_section_description: The Nez Perce (/ˌnɛzˈpɜːrs/; autonym: Niimíipuu, meaning "the walking people" or "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.
  Members of the Sahaptin language group, the Niimíipuu 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.
  Prior to "first contact" with Western civilization the Nimiipuu 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 Niimíipuu and nearby Chinook. The name translates as "pierced nose", but only the Chinook used that form of body modification.
  Today they are a federally recognized tribe, the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, and govern their Indian reservation in Idaho through a central government headquartered in Lapwai, Idaho known as the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee (NPTEC). They are one of five federally recognized tribes in the state of Idaho. Some still speak their traditional language, and the Tribe owns and operates two casinos along the Clearwater River in Idaho in Kamiah, Idaho and outside of Lewiston, Idaho, health clinics, a police force and court, community centers, salmon fisheries, radio station, and other things that promote economic and cultural self-determination.
  Cut off from most of their horticultural sites throughout the Camas Prairie by an 1863 treaty, confinement to reservations in Idaho, Washington and Oklahoma Indian Territory after the Nez Perce War of 1877, and Dawes Act of 1887 land allotments (today some Nez Perce lease land to farmers or loggers, but the Nez Perce only own 12% of their own reservation), the Nez Perce remain as a distinct culture and political economic influence within and outside their reservation. Today, hatching, harvesting and eating salmon is an important cultural and economic strength of the Nez Perce through full ownership or co-management of various salmon fish hatcheries, such as the Kooskia National Fish Hatchery in Kooskia, Idaho or the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery in Orofino, Idaho.
caption: No Horn on His Head, a Nez Perce man painted by George Catlin
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