The Nez Perce: William Clark And Meriwether Indians

The Nez Perce met William Clark and Meriwether Lewis as they were performing their journey across North America in 1805. This meeting went extraordinarily well and both sides were satisfied by the exchanges of guns, buffalo meat and horses. The two sides made trade agreements and the travelers even entrusted the Nez Perce with their horses as they traveled by boat to the Pacific Ocean. The early 19th century was a very prosperous time for the Nez Perce as they enjoyed the fruits of the fur trade and the sale of other commodities. In the 1830s Presbyterian missionaries began to enter the Nez Perce territory and introduced many enlightening things such as traditional medicine and instructions of how to build a mill. In the second half of the …show more content…
The treaty of 1863 reduced this territory and it was implied pressure by the United States to sell the reservation land. The Nez Perce entered into a war with the United States in 1877. This was known as the Nez Perce or Chief Josephs War. This war involved those within the Nez Perce who refused to be removed to the reservation land and the United States who wanted them to move there. The U.S gave the Nez Perce 30 days to move or they would attack. The Nez Perce were originally going to comply but a group of young warriors attacked and killed white ranchers. This action resulted in the United States hunting down the Nez Perce over a 1300 mile long distance which culminated in the battle at Bear Paw Mountain. The Nez Perce surrendered at this point and were moved to Oklahoma and then to the Colville Reservation in Washington. This defeat marked the end of the non-reservation and non-Christian Nez Perce. Even for the Christian Nez Perce things did not improve. In 1895 with the enactment of the Dawes Severalty Act their reservation territory became open to non-Indian