Nimiipuu Homelands

Nimiipuu Homelands. "likeley men, handsom women". The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Clearwater , Snake river confluence on October 10, 1805. The explorers camped across the river from here, their first encampment in present-day Washington. That evening, William Clark wrote about the Nez Perce people, whom he called the “Cho-pin-nish.” The Nez Perce call themselves the “Nimiipuu” (“the people”). The Expedition had just spent several weeks with the tribe after an arduous crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains. The Nimiipuu helped the explorers recover their strength by providing dried buffalo meat, salmon, berries, and camas roots. The tribe also taught them an easier way to make dugout canoes for their journey downstream and kept their horses over the winter of 1805-1806. Without the help of the Nimiipuu, the Expedition may not have made it to the Pacific Ocean and back home again. , Good Guidance , Two Nez Perce chiefs, “Twisted Hair” and “Tetoharsky,” guided the Expedition down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers in fall 1805. These two leaders often traveled ahead, announcing the party’s pending arrival and peaceful intentions to tribes along the river. They accompanied the explorers as far downstream as the Narrows of the Columbia (near present-day Dallesport, Washington). , October 10, 1805 , ”verry dressey in their way, the dress of the men are a white Buffalow robe or Elk Skin dressed with Beeds… Sea Shells… Mother of Pirl hung to ther hair and on a pice of otter Skin… hair Cewed in two parsels hanging forward over their Sholders, feathers, and different Coloured Paints… white, Green and light Blue… The women dress in a Shirt of Ibex or Goat Skins… ornemented with quilled Brass… Beeds, Shells and curios bones… all the Summer and fall fishing for the Salmon, the winter hunting the deer on Snow Shoes in the plains and takeing care of ther emence numbers of horses…” , ”worthy of remark that not one Stick of timber on the river near the forks…” , ~William Clark~ , This place, at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers, is called Simiinekem by the Nimiipuu. , ”clear as crystal” , Clark described the “Koos koos ke” (Clearwater) River as crystal clear and “Lewis’s” (Snake) River as greenish blue. He mapped the confluence and described the surrounding area.