For thousands of years, a Nimiipuu village stood a few miles west of here near the confluence of Álpáha Creek and the Snake River, and for a time it was known as Álpáwatma for the band who lived there. The Lewis and Clark Expedition visited while traveling west in fall 1805 and again in spring 1806 on the return journey, stopping for breakfast on October 11, 1805, when Clark wrote that they purchased all the fish they could and seven dogs, and trading again on May 4, 1806, when Lewis wrote that they obtained a few large cakes of half cured bread made of a root resembling the sweet potato. Chief Timothy Tamootsin, later known as Chief Timothy, lived at Álpáwatma when the expedition visited and was about five years old at the time; after being baptized by missionary Henry Spalding in 1839, he was friendly to pioneers, was one of the Nez Perce leaders at the Walla Walla Treaty Council in 1855, and helped rescue soldiers at the Battle of Steptoe Butte in 1858. Nimiipuu tradition also tells of Coyote, a trickster who saved the animal people from a great monster by entering it, building a fire inside, cutting it apart with his knife, and throwing its body parts to the four winds, from which the different tribes came. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Nimiipuu lived in this vicinity for at least 6,000 years, but when the United States Government defined Nez Perce lands in the 1863 treaty, this part of their homeland was excluded and the people were forced to move from this village to a reservation at Lapwai, Idaho. In 1975, waters pooled behind Lower Granite Dam submerged this ancient village site and other villages and settlements along the river. The Nimiipuu welcomed the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805 and 1806 with hospitality and kindness, offering food, keeping the explorers' horses over the winter, and guiding them downriver.