This shift to a more encompassing use of resources was well adapted to the Nez Perce homeland. It enabled the ancestral Nez Perce to develop a more sedentary lifestyle as evidenced through the emergence of large winter village sites, and the increasing use of semi-subterranean pit houses.

By about 3,500 years ago, the bow and arrow came into common use in Nez Perce country. This technology eventually replaced the atlatl around 2,000 years ago. Over the last 1,000 years, Nez Perce culture became increasingly reliant on seasonally abundant fish and root resources. As the population grew, large villages located along the Clearwater, Snake, and Salmon Rivers and their tributaries, became the norm.

A common thread throught the Nimiipuu existence has been a keen knowledge of the resources present in their homeland. This included a through understanding of when, where, and how to obtain and use these items. Local stone, minerals, and various plant species were crafted to make clothing, baskets, tools, hunting and fishing implements, shelter, and other personal items.

Nimiipuu legends and oral histories, combined with archeological evidence, provide a more complete understanding of their past.