Nez Perce Country
After docking in the town of Clarkston, Washington, the guests aboard the Sea Bird went in two different directions. Many ventured up the Snake River into Hells Canyon. From aboard a swift moving jet boat, the sumac on the hillsides stood out against the amber background of grasses as the towering columnar basalts stood sentinel as they have for thousands of years. Beautiful Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep were spotted moving with sure-footed grace on the rocks along the banks of the river. This is a wild landscape in many ways, but it’s also part of the ancestral range of the Nez Perce people. The “People Who Come Down from the Mountains,” (a translation of one of their names for themselves) have played host to non-Native people since the time of Lewis and Clark.
Guests who chose not to go on the jet boat heard about this first encounter between the Nez Perce and the Corps of Discovery on a guided tour along the Clearwater River. The tour visited many campsites of the Corps including Canoe Camp, where the Expedition spent several days after their treacherous crossing of the Bitterroot Range. They had emerged from the mountains to find the friendly Nez Perce and it was a good thing they did! The members of the Corps were tired and hungry and in a desperate situation. The Nez Perce saved their lives by providing food, information, assistance and friendship.
The motor coach used on this trip, while more dependable than Lewis and Clark’s transportation, brought out the hospitality of the local inhabitants in a modernized adaptation of the Expedition’s story. After the group enjoyed a great lunch in the quaint town of Kamiah, Idaho, the bus refused to start. Once again, travelers from far away places received welcome hospitality from the local residents. They provided transportation the short distance to the next interpretive site of the tour much in the way the Nez Perce had provided the Corps with horses for the next leg of their journey. A replacement bus quickly arrived, and everything was back to normal. It just goes to show, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
After docking in the town of Clarkston, Washington, the guests aboard the Sea Bird went in two different directions. Many ventured up the Snake River into Hells Canyon. From aboard a swift moving jet boat, the sumac on the hillsides stood out against the amber background of grasses as the towering columnar basalts stood sentinel as they have for thousands of years. Beautiful Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep were spotted moving with sure-footed grace on the rocks along the banks of the river. This is a wild landscape in many ways, but it’s also part of the ancestral range of the Nez Perce people. The “People Who Come Down from the Mountains,” (a translation of one of their names for themselves) have played host to non-Native people since the time of Lewis and Clark.
Guests who chose not to go on the jet boat heard about this first encounter between the Nez Perce and the Corps of Discovery on a guided tour along the Clearwater River. The tour visited many campsites of the Corps including Canoe Camp, where the Expedition spent several days after their treacherous crossing of the Bitterroot Range. They had emerged from the mountains to find the friendly Nez Perce and it was a good thing they did! The members of the Corps were tired and hungry and in a desperate situation. The Nez Perce saved their lives by providing food, information, assistance and friendship.
The motor coach used on this trip, while more dependable than Lewis and Clark’s transportation, brought out the hospitality of the local inhabitants in a modernized adaptation of the Expedition’s story. After the group enjoyed a great lunch in the quaint town of Kamiah, Idaho, the bus refused to start. Once again, travelers from far away places received welcome hospitality from the local residents. They provided transportation the short distance to the next interpretive site of the tour much in the way the Nez Perce had provided the Corps with horses for the next leg of their journey. A replacement bus quickly arrived, and everything was back to normal. It just goes to show, the more things change, the more they remain the same.