Nez Perce National Historical Park Administrative History

CHAPTER THREE:
LAND ACQUISITION AND PROTECTION

National Historic Trails

Nez Perce National Historical Park has been associated with the development of two national historical trails: the Lewis and Clark Trail and the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail. Both trails intersect a number of sites within Nez Perce National Historical Park.

Efforts to establish a trail of commemorative markers along the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition began as early as the 1930s. A private organization called the Lewis-Clark Trail Commission led this effort, which focused initially on marking and developing sites along the expedition route between St. Louis and the mouth of the Columbia River. In 1948, the NPS recommended that a "Lewis and Clark Tourway" be established along the Missouri River from St. Louis to Three Forks, Montana. In the 1950s, conservationist J.N. "Ding" Darling led an effort to develop the historic route into a recreational trail. In 1962, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall directed the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation (BOR) to analyze the proposal and formulate a development plan. The BOR completed its report in 1965, and included its concept for a Lewis and Clark national scenic trail in its 1966 report to Congress, "Trails for America: Report on Nationwide Trails Study." [183]

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Trails System Act (P.L. 90-543) on October 2, 1968. The act listed the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition for study and possible designation as a National Scenic Trail. The BOR identified a 3,700-mile route and recommended that it be designated under a new category to be called National Historic Trails. The National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 (P.L. 65-625) amended the National Trails Act to include this designation, and named the Lewis and Clark Trail as one of four National Historic Trails. [184]

Local efforts to commemorate the expedition route through northern Idaho received a large boost from the construction of U.S. Highway 12 over Lolo Pass and its designation as the "Lewis and Clark Scenic Highway" in the early 1960s. In 1966, Idaho citizens formed the Idaho Lewis-Clark Trail Committee and elected the retired forest supervisor of the Clearwater National Forest, Ralph Space, as its chairman. Like the Lewis and Clark Trail Commission which Congress had established two years earlier, the local organization assumed the role of stimulating government agencies to identify, mark, and preserve the trail. Governor Robert E. Smylie advised the committee that it must coordinate planning with the NPS since the commission's decisions might have an impact on the Nez Perce National Historical Park. [185]

The National Trails System Act assigned administrative responsibility of the trail to the Secretary of the Interior, and delegated responsibility for long-term administration and preparation of a comprehensive management plan to the Midwest Regional Office of the National Park Service. The act required the Secretary to submit the plan to Congress by September 30, 1981. The Midwest Regional Office sought input on the plan from Nez Perce National Historical Park in 1980. Specifically, the project team sought advice from park officials in identifying and evaluating historic and recreational resources where the Lewis and Clark Trail passed through Nez Perce country. [186]

By that time, discussion was well underway for designation of a Nez Perce or Nee-Me-Poo National Historic Trail (Figure 5). The first milestone in this effort was reached in 1965 with the inclusion of the Lolo Trail as a site in Nez Perce National Historical Park, and its designation as a National Historic Landmark. The feasibility studies for the park recognized the historical significance of the Nez Perce Tribe's traditional trail across the Bitterroot Range which Lewis and Clark followed in 1805 and 1806. Like other sites in the park, the Lolo Trail site was not designated by boundaries; indeed, portions of it remained obscure. Park officials worked with U.S. Forest Service officials from the Clearwater National Forest to locate precisely where the trail existed. In any event, the Lolo Trail designation served to highlight the connection between the route followed by Lewis and Clark and the trail which the Nez Perce people had used historically. [187]

As the centennial year of the Nez Perce War of 1877 approached, various entities expressed interest in having portions of the 1,200-mile route taken by the Nez Perce (including that portion which followed the Lolo Trail) designated as a Nez Perce National Historic Trail. The Appaloosa Horse Club, Inc., which organized a commemorative trail ride over a section of this route each summer, inquired about the project in 1975. Superintendent Jack Williams outlined for the club the criteria which were normally applied in evaluating a trail's suitability for designation as a national historic trail. Williams explained to the members that for a study to be initiated, "a request to the Secretary of the Interior by your Congressman recommending various outstanding segments of the Nez Perce War Trail is needed." [188] In 1976, Congress amended the National Trails System Act to authorize a study of the Nez Perce or Nee-Me-Poo Trail. The act called for a joint study by the Park Service and the Forest Service. The agencies submitted the joint report to the public review process after 1982, and Congress designated the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail in 1986 (P.L. 99-445). To the surprise of many in the Park Service, the law placed the trail under the administration of the Forest Service. It remains one of the few units in the National Trails System administered by that agency. [189]

The Forest Service's first coordinator for the Nez Perce Trail, Jim Dolan of the Northern Regional Office in Missoula, Montana, asked Superintendent Roy Weaver to help him establish an advisory council for the trail. Weaver arranged for a representative of NPTEC as well as a representative of the Nez Perce at the Colville Indian Reservation to be on the council. The organizational meeting was held at the park on February 11, 1987. [190] Following formal designation of the trail on July 19, 1991, the Nez Perce National Historic Trail Foundation was created. Most of the foundation's members were formerly on the advisory council. [191]

Owing to the distance between the Nez Perce groups in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho and the Forest Service trail coordinator in Missoula, Montana, the park was often asked to assist with administrative details. NPS and Forest Service officials found that they had to work together to avoid duplication of effort. Some members of the Park Service wondered whether the administration of the trail would someday pass to their agency. Such a change would lessen confusion in the public's mind between the trail and the park, and would simplify management of overlapping sections of the Nez Perce and Lewis and Clark trails as the latter approached its bicentennial celebration. [192]

Although the Park Service had not been designated the lead agency for the Nez Perce Trail, the establishment and administration of this new entity under the aegis of the U.S. Forest Service anticipated two major trends in the development of Nez Perce National Historical Park in the 1990s. First, the trail focused attention on the Nez Perce War of 1877. In this sense, the designation of the trail anticipated later park additions legislation which was to expand the number of park sites relating directly to the war. Together with the park additions, the Nez Perce Trail altered the interpretive thrust of the park story, increased the amount of emphasis on the conflict between Nez Perce and white and the story of the war itself. Second, the trail spanned four states (Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming), greatly expanding the number of congressional members and constituencies with whom the park administration needed to involve itself. Specifically, it underlined the fact that the Nez Perce are a divided people, with separate bands located in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Canada as a legacy of the War of 1877. Henceforth, the park administration would need to consult not only with NPTEC, but with representatives of Nez Perce groups in Washington and Oregon as well.