Reflections: At one time Nez Perce land and the Nez Perce people were inseparable, a part of the vast area stretching between the winding waters of the Wallowas and the highest crests of the Bitterroots. Sharing a common language and culture, the Nez Perce moved within this region enjoying what the land provided -- roots and berries, fish and game, shelter and clothing and fuel -- and we derived from it both a sustainable economy and a rich spirituality. Strong families formed villages, and villages the tribe. The Nez Perce people were in harmony -- with their land, with their people, with their Creator.
Food-gathering activities created a trail system throughout the region, and as in all cultures, human curiosity posed the question of what lay beyond that next ridge, what was across that mountain range. And thus, well before the advent of the horse, the Nez Perce began exploring a route to what is now western Montana. And on some creek or ridge top, they met the Salish people engaged in similar exploration westward, and they soon learned of the various tribes of the Great Plains. So began the inevitable system of trade that adds richness to a people's knowledge and material wealth. Trade required travel, and travel, trails. The acquistion of horses by the Nez Perce rapidly accelerated trail development and travel, as well as establishing the need for a particular type of trail -- one that would be relatively free of trees and brush. High mountain ridges best addressed such needs, and thus the Nee-mee-poo Trail increased in use and importance. It was this same trail that many years later would bring to the Nez Perce people the first white explorers in the form of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. It was this same trail that in 1877 led the Joseph Band and other Nez Perces away from their homeland, pursued by U.S. troops for defending the lands and rights repeatedly promised them by the U.S. Government. Many would never return.
Those members of the Joseph band who did survive the Big Hole and the Bear's Paw, as well as Kansas and Oklahoma, returned by other routes and other means, and to Nespelem rather than Wallowa. The Nee-mee-poo Trail of their ancestors became lost to their minds and spirits, for they lived far from its beckoning call of ripe berries and buffalo. Today, most of the descendants living at Nespelem have never been on the Trail. They have not shared the scenic beauty of the forest leading up to the high ridges that the Trail traverses. They are unaware that, due to its high elevation, much of the Trail is free from snow for only eighty or ninety days a year. They have never stood on a high rock outcrop and looked at the immense area that once was the exclusive homeland of the Nez Perce. And yet this trail is a critical part of our history as a people, another weft of beargrass to be rediscovered and carefully woven into our historical fabric, another part of our past that can make and keep us whole.
Recommendations: The members of the Chief Joseph Band recognize that the Nez Perce National Historic Trail now belongs to all Americans, and that it has a special story to tell. We further realize that the coming decade will witness much interest in this Trail as many Americans celebrate or otherwise commemorate the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Finally, and most importantly, we recognize the significance, even sacredness, of this trail to all Nez Perce people, and we wish others to do so as well. In keeping with these observations, we then make the following recommendations to the United States Forest Service with respect to Trail management:
- We support Forest Service efforts to improve the visitors' center on Lolo Pass. We believe that a quality information service at that location can help tell the story of the Nee-mee-poo Trail and can help educate visitors on appropriate means and locations to experience the Trail and its spirit.
- We favor the establishment of a limited number of campgrounds and restroom facilities along portions of the Trail to accommodate and control visitor use.
- While we acknowledge the necessity of road access to the Trail for visitor and administrative use, we also support the closing of some of the roads in the area to motorized vehicles. We further recommend that portions of the Lolo Motorway itself be closed to limit access to those portions of the Trail that are of particularly high cultural value to the Nez Perce people.
- We urge the Forest Service to provide an interpretive balance to the signage that now exists along the Lolo Motorway. Present signage fails to communicate that the Lewis-Clark National Historic Trail and the Nez Perce National Historic Trail share much of the same tread and are further related in historical significance.
- We request that the only archaeological excavations conducted on the Trail be at locations where the ground would be disturbed for the construction of campsites or other visitor facilities. We remind Forest Service officials that the Seven Drum Religion has neither song nor ceremony for reburial.
- Finally, we request that issues involved with Nez Perce National Historic Trail management continue to be shared with the various bands of the Nez Perce people and that our consultation in these matters at all times be given serious consideration.
