WALLOWA COUNTY HISTORY

Wallowa County is completely surrounded by great natural boundaries (see geology or map). High mountains and steep canyons with raging rivers flowing through them left this pristine country to the Nez Perce longer than most western communities had.

Although Lewis & Clark never reached Wallowa Valley, their expedition triggered an era of change that would cause lasting consequences for the Nez Perce.

For many years before the white settlers came to Wallowa County attracted by the abundant grazing for their cattle, the Nez Perce lived here.  They hunted the valley and fished in the rivers long before Columbus discovered the New World, well before Lewis & Clark explored the West.

Today their culture is still strong in Wallowa County.  You can find Petroglyphs on rock walls hidden in deep canyons and along the Snake River, visit a modern Nez Perce art showing at Wallowa Lake, or attend a friendship feast in Wallowa.

JOSEPH OREGON HISTORY

The great Chief Joseph and his tribe lived in the Wallowa Valley in the summer months, and wintered in the deep canyons of the Imnaha, Snake and Grande Ronde Rivers.

Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce had always promised peace to the white men and had always tried to befriend the whites until the treaties of 1855 and 1863 divided Nez Perce families and brought a period of unrest and change. Growing resentment over this and loss of land brought on the war of 1877.

The Nez Perce have became known for their selective breeding of the sturdy Applaloosa horse, and their flight in 1877 where they outran and out fought General Oliver O. Howard and the US Army who was trying to force them from their homeland onto reservations. Their flight of 1,100 miles, starting near Wallowa Lake and ending at Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana left them 30 miles from freedom in Canada.

Who can blame the Nez Perce people for not wanting to leave such a beautiful place?

Today, the Nez Perce have a 160 acre site in Wallowa they call “Nez Perce Homeland Project”, where they have a dance ground and roofed gazebo. In Mid-July they hold a three day celebration with a friendship feast.  The interpretive Center is open weekdays.

                                                Old Chief Joseph’s
                                                Gravesite is located
                                                    At the foot of
                                                   Wallowa Lake

After the war of 1877 the white settlers were in control of Wallowa Valley and settlers, trappers and miners came in unchecked. Many small settlements began and thrived into the 1900’s.  Where there were once bustling towns with blacksmith shops, hotels, shops, schools and many homes, today you may have to look hard to find any traces.

                                                Stop at a local bookstore
                                                to pick up a book on our
                                                     exciting history

NEZ PERCE HISTORY IN WALLOWA COUNTY

Long before Columbus discovered the new world or Lewis and Clark traveled west, the Nez Perce people lived and thrived in what we now call Wallowa County. They hunted the abundant game, fished the rivers and gathered roots and berries. They called themselves “nimiipuu,” and they lived on the prairies and along the river valleys of north central Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

The Nez Perce were widely traveled and after acquiring the horse in the 1700’s they would frequently travel with Cayuse and Palouse relatives to the Montana  Bison grounds and to the Columbia River for fishing.

The culture and history of the Nez Perce are intertwined with missionaries, fur traders, settlers, gold miners, loggers, and soldiers, as well as other Native American peoples, and you can still find pictographs their early ancestors have left behind in remote caves and along rivers.

Young Chief Joseph whose Indian name was “Heinmot Tookyalakekt,” meaning, “Thunder Rolling Down the Mountains” was born in what we now call Wallowa County in 1840. His father, “Tu-eka-kas” took the name, Joseph after converting to Christianity and being baptized in 1839. He is commonly known as “Old Chief Joseph.”

The Nez Perce would move their camps with the changing of the seasons, including their large herds of horses. In the summer, they would spread throughout the Wallowa County areas, hunting and gathering food for the long winter months, which they would spend in the deep canyons to the North.

Because of the local topography the influence of outsiders to the area began years later than in most of the West. During the 1800’s the Nez Perce culture went thru drastic changes with the arrival of settlers, trappers, traders, and others.

As more people arrived looking for land, the Nez Perce agreed to meet with the U.S. Government to hold treaty negotiations.  In 1855 they signed a treaty that created a large reservation that included most of their traditional homeland as their exclusive domain.

Those lands stretched from what is now central Idaho to the eastern edges of both Washington and Oregon.  Tucked away in the northeast corner of Oregon was the beautiful, fertile Wallowa Valley, which also had superior hunting grounds.

Following the discovery of gold on their reservation in Orofino, Idaho 1861 over 10,000 minors invaded the Nez Perce homeland. Hostilities began when settlers and cattlemen increasingly trespassed upon the Indian land forcing a new treaty which reduced the size of the original reservation to one tenth of the land they once had.

In 1863 the U.S. Government offered a new treaty in an attempt to pacify the newcomers and give unobstructed access to the newly discovered mines.  Old Chief Joseph refused to sign the new treaty as it totally excluded the Wallowa Valley which had been included in the old treaty.

Some of the Nez Perce Chiefs whose interests didn’t include Wallowa County agreed to sign the new treaty, while those who stood to loose their land rejected it. Known as the “treaty” and “nontreaty” bands. Chief Joseph’s band was in the latter.

For several years after the new treaty was signed, Chief Joseph’s band stayed in their homeland in the Wallowa Valley, until the war of 1877 when the Government tried to forcibly move the five nontreaty bands to the much smaller Lapwai reservation.

While Old Chief Joseph continued to try and maintain friendly relations with the settlers, more and more hostilities occurred on both sides. When a small group of young Nez Perce men, angered by the loss of more and more land, horses and lives, attacked and killed several settlers in the Wallowa Valley.the U.S. Army gave Young Chief Joseph the  order to move his band to the reservation at Lapwai. In the spring of 1877, Joseph, realizing the odds of winning a fight against such superior numbers reluctantly agreed to leave his beloved land.

Note:
Old Chief Joseph passed away before the nontreaty bands were given the ultimatum to move, and was buried in the hills outside of Wallowa. His remains were moved years later to the small cemetery at the foot of Wallowa Lake.

Joseph’s band of approximately 400 including men, women and children, with a large herd of about 1000 horses and many cattle departed Wallowa Valley leaving much of their stock behind. After crossing the Snake River at Dug Bar, Joseph’s band met with other bands of Nez Perce and a small group of Palouses.

Before they could comply with the order to move onto the reservation the Nez Perce realized that the Army was coming for them. Their peaceful journey had turned into the epic flight for freedom and sanctuary in Canada.

 Young Chief Joseph and the other nontreaty chiefs and their allies fled to Chief White Bird’s village just north of the present town of White Bird in Idaho. The confrontation there on June 17, 1877 was the first of many battles against the U.S. Army led by General Oliver O. Howard and ended with heavy casualties for the Armies superior forces.

Following were skirmishes at Cottonwood in early July and a battle on the Clearwater River July 11-12th. At the Weippe Prairie approximately 800 nontreay men, women and children decided to cross the Lolo Pass into Montana in hopes that their friends, the Crow, would help them.

Aid from the Crows did not come. More and more soldiers eventually totaling over 2,000 joined the chase. At Big Hole, August 9-10th, the Nez Perce lost 60 to 90 people in a surprise attack led by Col. John Gibbon.

The relentless pursuit with other battles continued on south thru Montana, then east across the tip of Wyoming. The Nez Perce were trying to reach friends, families and freedom in Canada and again headed north thru Montana, where they were finally besieged by the U.S. Army at the Bear Paw Battlefield in October, just 30 miles short of their destination.

Although the  Nez Perce  warriors were encumbered with, women, children and elderly, they outran, outfought and out maneuvered   the  U.S.  Army for over 1,100 miles on their tired but, sturdy Appaloosa horses, while fresh troops continually appeared in their path.

They struggled over rugged mountain ranges, raging rivers and heavy snow with few threadbare blankets for warmth.  They finally stopped to rest for one last night, within site of the Canadian border, not knowing the U.S. Army was closing in due to receiving a telegraphed message of their location. Their flight had ended.

Many did escape into Canada, some found their way back to Umatilla and Nez Perce reservations, and some, too exhausted from the ordeal were forced to surrender.

After over three months of extreme hardship, Chief Joseph’s dramatic surrender still echo’s today.  “From where the sun now shines, I shall fight no more forever”.

In the aftermath, Chief Joseph argued passionately that his people be allowed to return to their homeland in the Wallowa Valley. Instead they were sent to the Coleville reservation in Washington where many Nez Perce still live today.

Looking around us today at the stunning beauty of the area, it is easy to see why the Nez Perce people were heartbroken to leave their homeland.