Working in Partnership with Others
Park Overview
Interpretive Challenges and Opportunities
Resource Protection Challenges aned Opportunities
for
Nez Perce National Historical Park
and
Big Hole National Battlefield
| PARK OVERVIEW |
Because Nez Perce National Historical Park is so widespread geographically, the parkwide environment is difficult to describe. This section presents a broad-brush presentation of relevant information about cultural resources, natural resources, visitor experience, and facilities for park operation, to provide a better understanding of the context into which the individual sites fit.
CULTURAL HISTORY
The Nez Perce ancestral peoples have occupied the Plateau cultural area of the Northwest for at least 11,000 years. According to Nez Perce tradition, the world before humans was inhabited by animals who possessed human traits. The main animal was Coyote, who at times had superhuman powers. When a monster who lived near present-day Kamiah began to consume the animals, Coyote tricked the monster into swallowing him. While in the monster's stomach, Coyote killed the monster and set the animals free. He then carved the monster into pieces and scattered the parts throughout the land, where they became the various Native American tribes. He sprinkled the monster's blood about the area, and from the blood came the Nee-Me-Poo, or Nez Perce, people.
The earliest of the ancestral peoples lived in small groups and family units. They pursued a big game hunting cultural tradition that included fishing. By some 5,000 years ago, the basis of the historic Nez Perce peoples began to take form. Winter villages began to appear in which people lived in semisubterranean pit houses. Diets reflected an increasing use of roots and other wild- growing food. About 3,000 years ago the bow and arrow came into use, but this did not replace the atlatl (spear thrower) as the weapon of choice for another 1,300 years. By 700 A.D. most Nez Perce lived in villages along the main streams and tributaries of the Clearwater, Snake, and Salmon Rivers, where fish soon made up half of their diet.
Sites in Nez Perce National Historical Park that are associated with
legends or that contain evidence of early occupation:
Spalding, which contains a site of prehistoric Indian communities dating back 11,000 years
Lenore, which contains an early occupation site dating from about 8,500 years ago
Weis Rockshelter, with remains from as early as 8,000 years ago
Hasotino Village, where there is evidence of prehistoric and historic occupation, as well as an important eel fishery site
Heart of the Monster, where two basalt outcrops, Heart of the Monster and the Liver, represent the birthplace of the Nez Perce peoples
Coyote's Fishnet, which depicts the Bear and the Fishnet of Nez Perce legend
Ant and Yellowjacket, where rock formations symbolize these fighting insects
Camas Prairie, Musselshell Meadow, Weippe Prairie and Tolo Lake, where camas roots have been gathered for thousands of years
Buffalo Eddy, with rock art that encompasses two phases of petroglyphs and an area of pictographs that date as early as 4,500 years ago
