Nimiipuu Homelands

The Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers on October 10, 1805, after spending several weeks with the Nimiipuu following an arduous crossing of the Bitterroot Mountains. The explorers camped across the river from this place, their first encampment in present-day Washington. William Clark wrote that evening about the Nez Perce, whom he called the Cho-pin-nish; the Nez Perce call themselves the Nimiipuu, meaning the people. The Nimiipuu helped the expedition recover by providing dried buffalo meat, salmon, berries, and camas roots, taught them an easier way to make dugout canoes for the journey downstream, and kept their horses over the winter of 1805-1806. Without this help, the expedition may not have made it to the Pacific Ocean and back. Two Nez Perce chiefs, Twisted Hair and Tetoharsky, guided the expedition down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers in fall 1805, often traveling ahead to announce the party’s peaceful intentions to tribes along the river, and they accompanied the explorers as far as the Narrows of the Columbia near present-day Dallesport, Washington. The Nimiipuu call this place at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake rivers Simiinekem. Clark described the Clearwater as clear as crystal, the Snake as greenish blue, and he mapped the confluence and the surrounding area.

Clarkston, Washington · United States