Nez Percé's Influence On American Culture

The Nez Percé were one of the most numerous and powerful Native American tribes originating from the Columbia River Plateau region, or modern-day Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Montana. This region consisted of warm summers and cold, snowy winters. The Nez Percé lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle, moving with the food supply, fishing, hunting, or gathering wild plants for food. Fish, specifically salmon, was a staple. They practiced traditional religion based on Animism, which integrated their salmon fishing into a seasonal ceremonial calendar. Their first encounter with non-Natives was with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their expedition in 1805. At this time, their population was between 6,000 and 8,000. They welcomed the white men, as well as the hundreds of traders, missionaries, and others who poured in eventually, and were considered among the more friendly and …show more content…
They even helped to provide clothes to settlers in the 1840s. Concurrently, epidemics, most notably tuberculosis, were taking a toll on their population as a result of the influx of white people. In 1855, the tribe ceded several million acres of land but kept over 8 million acres for a reservation in a treaty. Non-Native miners and other trespassers ignored the restrictions and moved in anyway, triggering a crisis among the Natives over the issue of loyalty toward whites. This violated their treaty and led to a more hostile atmosphere. Following gold strikes in 1860, whites sought the Wallowa and Grande Ronde Valleys, which encompassed more than three-fourths of the reservation. The Nez Percé exemplifies how contact with the white man during America’s quest for western expansion affected Native Americans by implementing restrictions to Natives’ rights through acts and treaties, causing them to suffer injustices such as being forced to relocate, a rapidly declining population, and the near-destruction of their