'ipelúutpe

A Living Landscape

Nez Perce Tribe Cultural Resource Division

October 20, 2021

This land is powerful. it's like some of the places our Indian people go to fast, or seek Medicine... In the old days, it was for being a warrior, going to battle, but nowadays, we seek power and medicine to heal. Many times we don't really know what we're going to get, if we're going to be lucky enough to receive a message or a gift from the haniyáawat, the Creator. Whether it's an area like this, or in the mountains, that we have some sacred sites, you never know what you're going to find. -- Leroy Seth

Families

*Use the map to locate the places while the video is playing*

From left, Shirley, Annie Dickson (born near Dayton, WA ca. 1890) , Woody Smith, Consuelo Hernandez, Katherine Cloud (born at wawáawíi ca. 1880), Lilyan Smith, Teri Smith

Treaty

1855: The Nez Perce ceded 7.5 million acres of tribal land. The Tribe fought to retain the right to hunt and fish in their "usual and accustomed places."

In 1860, gold was discovered within the boundaries of the reservation. Instead of protecting the reservation from encroachment, the U.S. government forced the Tribe into a second treaty.

1863: the U.S. government reduced the reservation by 90% to 750,000 acres.

*Use the slider to see the 1855 and 1863 reservation boundaries.

Origin Story

Origin of Palouse Falls, as told by Allen Pinkham.

Transcription provided by the Nez Perce Language Program

This place is called Palouse. The village was further down river at the mouth.

kínix we'nikíin híiwes pelúuc. tew'yeníikinwees qetu hiwéeke q'oˀ múut'etx ˀiyíwewiype.

Beaver he was making this canyon here.

tax̣cpol haaníiya sáqan kineeyníx.

And the people complained, “Look what Beavers doing! You know he is changing the river!”

káa titóoqan kínix hi'lx̣tímcix, " ˀehékin ka manaa táx̣cpol hikúuse! ˀéetx cúukwecix ke kaa yoq'opí píik'un hiweck'úuliikse!"

And so one older strong warrior said, "well I’ll go do away with Beaver."

ku'ús náaqc téeq'is qepsqéps tuqelenew'éet hihíne, "wáaqoˀ ˀéetex q'oˀ ˀoopciy'awtat'áasa táx̣cpolna."

And so he made some long spears to kill Beaver.

kaa kuˀús páanya kuhétine ˀiptqíkeˀykeˀsne wapciy'áawnwacat táx̣cpolna.

He found Beaver here. And so he starts to kill Beaver with these spears.

páaˀyax̣na táx̣cpolna kíne. kawóˀ puuyekyúuye tax̣cpolna ˀiptqikeˀykeˀski.

And then, Beaver in his struggles and his splashing around made these marks on the cliffs.

káa kawóˀ, táxcpol ˀilóotkolixnikitpa kúuspe haaníya seq'éepitpeme tiléelpe.

Then that was his dying motions was going like this and he died.

kaa yóq'o hiˀlootkolíxnika káa kuˀskí hitn'úxne.

So the warrior did his job. (Thus that warrior killed him.)

kuˀús yox̣ tuqelenew'eetúum póopciy'awna.

Importance

The Indian foods, the landscape, the geography, the rivers of how they meet, dictated to us of how we were to comport ourselves in relationship with the land and the resources. -- Nakia Williamson

Family drying héesu (lamprey) along the Snake River

Lifeways

Medicines abound in this place. Food is here all the time, especially across the river, where they used to ford the river to their people on the other side, and they would have gathering camps. Women folk would go out and they would dig roots, get things prepared, men would hunt, women folks would prepare that, set it up, everything ready for the winter. -- Silas Whitman

Elizabeth Wilson (left) and Agnes Moses (right) gather camas.

"This area, especially across the river on the other side, close to the river, the abundance of like, in the first part of the spring, qéqiit, wewíimn (certain locations), qáaws; qáaws was abundant there..."

Spirituality

This is a spirituality place where it’s always in there. You can see the mist all the time. That talks, you can hear it in the wind, you can feel it; that’s power. And we take that and we push it, it’s pushed down river.
Silas Whitman

Sacredness of Water

Takeaway Message

The way we're looking at how the wind blows, with the thoughts, the power, and the words; even the song that comes from those times. All that is there, and there are young people still around here know that practice those ways and use the Medicine Dance to preserve those things. It's very important to us. If we don't, we disappear as a people, and all that's left is just the water and the words and the thoughts that we have that are hanging out there and that's it.
Silas Whitman

Takeaway Message