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Students will look at the three different maps and analyze how the Nez Perce trail was affected by the change in their homeland.

Students will fill out a Notice and Wonder chart about what they see in the different maps. They can meet together in groups and share their Notice and Wonders.

Addintional: Students can also compare the difference between the maps from the past and the current one.  They can form questions about what the current map means and shows.

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Student will create a Notice and Wonder chart to record notes and questions about the films. They weill share out in their groups and as a whole class. These questions will guide their reading.

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Students will form into groups with 3 students per group. Each group will look at these three imagesin and using the photo analysis sheet, they talk about what they see in each picture

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5.G.1.4 Explain the reasons for forced and voluntary migration to, from, and within the United States

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A map of the nantional historic trail of the Nez Perce showing their displacement from their lands. Look at the key carefully to see their story before viewing any videos.

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Read this artcile about the Nez Perce Homeland and their fight to maintain their land.

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Landscape of History: The Nez Perce National Historic Trail

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Landscape of History: The Nez Perce National Historic Trail

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Landscape Of History: The Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Tra

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https://content.libraries.wsu.edu/digital/collection/maps/id/585/

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Surrender Speech by Chief Joseph, An Emotional Speech by the Head of a Tribe.

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Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce (1840?-1904) was known to his people as "Thunder Traveling to the Loftier Mountain Heights." He led his people in an attempt to resist the takeover of their lands in the Oregon Territory by white settlers. In 1877, the Nez Perce were ordered to move to a reservation in Idaho. Chief Joseph agreed at first. But after members of his tribe killed a group of settlers, he tried to flee to Canada with his followers, traveling over 1500 miles through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Along the way they fought several battles with the pursuing U.S. Army. Chief Joseph spoke these words when they finally surrendered on October 5th, 1877.

Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are - perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my Chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. Chief Joseph - Thunder Traveling to the Loftier Mountain Heights - 1877

The History Place - Great Speeches Collection The History Place - YouTube Channel
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Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place.

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The History Place - Great Speeches Collection: Chief Joseph Surrenders

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At The History Place - Great Speeches collection

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The Snow Trail, by Charles M. Russell, 1897, Oil on Canvas

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Survivors of the 1877 War with Colonists

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Nez Perce Chief Joseph in studio portrait”, Milton Loryea. Repository: Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Online version on November 2, 2006, available at: http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/htmlview.exe?CISOROOT=/loc&CISOPTR=694

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Nez Perce Chief Joseph with General O.O. Howard & Colonel Pratt”, ca. March, 1904. Repository: University of Washington Libraries. Online version on November 2, 2006, available at: http://content.lib.washington.edu/cgi-bin/htmlview.exe?CISOROOT=/loc&CISOPTR=2046

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One Sky Above Us: The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians by Nancy Plain 

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One Sky Above Us: The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians by Nancy Plain 

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Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O'Dell and Elizabeth Hall

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Thunder Rolling in the Mountains by Scott O'Dell and Elizabeth Hall

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https://content.libraries.wsu.edu/digital/collection/maps/id/585/

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Summer 1877 brought tragedy to the Nez Perce (or, in their language, Nimiipu or Nee-Me-Poo). A band of 800 men, women, and children-plus almost 2,000 horses-left their homeland in what is now Oregon and Idaho pursued by the US Army. Settlers were moving into their homeland and the US Government was trying to force them onto a reservation. At Big Hole, Montana, many of their group, including women and children, were killed in a battle with the Army. The remainder of the group continued fleeing, and entered Yellowstone National Park on August 23.

In Yellowstone

Only a small part of the route taken by the Nez Perce who fled from the US Army in 1877 went through Yellowstone, and the Native Americans largely eluded their pursuers while in the park. However, the 13 days that the Nez Perce spent in Yellowstone became part of the tragic story they continue to pass down to their children.

During the time they crossed the park, the Nez Perce encountered about 25 visitors in the park, some more than once. Warriors took hostage or attacked several of these tourists, killing two. The group continued traveling through the park and over the Absaroka Mountains into Montana. The Army stopped them near the Bear's Paw Mountains, less than 40 miles (64 km) from the Canadian border. This is where it is believed the flight ended and Chief Joseph said, "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." Some Nez Perce escaped to Canada, but after fierce fighting and a siege, the rest of the band surrendered on October 5, and most of the survivors were sent to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma.

Nez Perce Commemorative Sites

The Nez Perce National Historical Park, established by Congress in 1965 and managed by the National Park Service, includes 38 sites in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington that have been important in the history and culture of the Nez Perce.

Many of these sites are also on the 1,170-mile (1,882-km) Nez Perce National Historic Trail, established in 1986 and managed by the US Forest Service. The route extends from Wallowa Lake, Oregon, to the Bear's Paw Mountains in Montana. The historic trail goes through the park, and it is considered a sacred place by many Nez Perce who continue to honor their ancestors and carry on their memories through ceremonies conducted in the park. Beginning in 2006, the National Park Service undertook a multiyear archeological inventory project along the Nez Perce trail through the park. These efforts not only identified locations of several Nez Perce, US Army, and tourist encampments, but also clarified the general route the Nez Perce followed through the Absaroka Mountains.

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Flight of the Nez Perce - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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ummer 1877 brought tragedy to the Nez Perce (or, in their language, Nimiipu or Nee-Me-Poo). A band of 800 men, women, and children-plus almost 2,000 horses-left their homeland in what is now Oregon and Idaho pursued by the US Army.

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Student will know reasons why people migrate (both forced and voluntary) within the United States.

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In this section, students will be able to research and find out what the effects of the forced migration of the Nez Perce tribe have had on the culture and where they are today. Students will be divided into groups. (I have differentiated the articeles/sites for students who will need more support and those that can do extended research.) Each group will be assigned one article/site to explore. They will be able to as the expert group write a short presentation of their article and present it to each other.

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Nez Perce Tribe reclaims 148 acres of ancestral land in Eastern Oregon

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Nez Perce Tribe reclaims 148 acres of ancestral land in Eastern Oregon

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Purchase includes traditional fishing grounds and meeting place.

The Nez Perce Tribe is reclaiming an ancestral village site in the Eastern Oregon town of Joseph more than a century after being pushed out the area.

This month, the tribe purchased 148 acres of an area known as "the place of boulders," or Am'sáaxpa.

Chief Joseph held council on the ridge above, before a sweeping view of the Wallowa Mountains. Hundreds of tribal members would camp there at the peak of the fishing season and catch sockeye salmon along the Wallowa River.

"There's a lot of excitement buzzing around," Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee Chairman Shannon Wheeler said. "We feel fortunate to be at this juncture in time to be able to say that we are on our way home. We feel the landscape misses us, and we miss the landscape."

Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee Chairman Shannon Wheeler stands on the tribe's newly purchased property near the Wallowa Mountains in Joseph.
Courtesy of the Nez Perce Tribe

The land was part of an 1855 treaty that granted the tribe millions of acres and the right to fish and hunt on lands ceded to the U.S. government.

But then the U.S. Army forced the Nez Perce to leave the area in 1877, in violation of that treaty.

Nakia Williamson-Cloud, cultural resource program director for the Nez Perce Tribe, said many history books are wrong in saying tribal members never returned to the area after the Nez Perce War.

"The narrative is that the Nez Perce never went back there. That is not the case," he said. "After that, our people would continue to go back there to hunt and fish under persecution. It was privatized by non-Indian homesteaders."

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Those who returned were often harassed or cited for trespassing, Williamson-Cloud said, even though the 1855 treaty guaranteed their right to hunt and fish there.

"It's been a long struggle for our people to maintain that connection, but they did," he said. "Having that back and forth relationship with the land is what defines who we are. ... It's not just some place our people visited. The very ground we walk on is made up of our ancestors. That's how deep our connection is."

Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee Chairman Shannon Wheeler (right) and Secretary Rachel Edwards sign paperwork completing the purchase of 148 acres of the tribe's ancestral land in Eastern Oregon.
Courtesy of the Nez Perce Tribe

The purchase consists of farmland previously known as the Hayes property, located behind the Joseph Rodeo Grounds. It includes Wallowa River frontage and some water rights.

The land has changed dramatically since the Nez Perce left the area in the 1800s. Now, there's a dam blocking sockeye from swimming up to Wallowa Lake, so the fishery that was once the tribe's main attraction to that site isn't possible.

Williamson-Cloud said the tribe is hoping to reintroduce sockeye to the area and create fish passage into the lake.

"Our culture and way of life is tied to the land, and the land has been utterly transformed and changed," he said. "We've had to try to adapt to those changes as best we can."

Buying the land back demonstrates the tribe's resilience, Williamson-Cloud said, and it has much deeper meaning for the tribal community than simply having legal title.

"These places are defining characteristics of our people because our people's lives, culture and spirituality are tied to these places," he said. "When we're disassociated from these places it affects our well-being as people."

Wheeler said the tribe may use the land for tribal operations as well as traditional harvests.

"First and foremost is the healing that will take place for the Nez Perce people," he said. "We speak to the land. We try to listen and understand what the land is saying. That's what come first. We have promises that we've made to the land and we look to uphold those."

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Nez Perce Tribe reclaims 148 acres of ancestral land in Eastern Oregon

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The farmland purchase reclaims an ancestral village site known as "the place of boulders," or Am'sáaxpa, in the Eastern Oregon town of Joseph more than a century after the Nez Perce Tribe was pushed out the area.

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A rare glimpse inside Idaho's Nez Perce tribe

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A rare glimpse inside Idaho's Nez Perce tribe

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A rare glimpse inside Idaho's Nez Perce tribe

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As the first photographer welcomed by the Nez Perce in 100 years, Hunter Barnes remembers his time living among the elusive tribe in Lapwai from 2004 to 2008.

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Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests - Home

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Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests - Home

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Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests - Home

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Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests - Home

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'Homecoming': 100 years after forceful removal, Nez Perce people celebrate reclaimed land

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'Homecoming': 100 years after forceful removal, Nez Perce people celebrate reclaimed land

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JOSEPH, Oregon - Vice-Chairman Shannon Wheeler has been dreaming about this day for years.

On Thursday, more than 150 Nez Perce (Niimiipuu) people returned and blessed part of their homeland, a hundred years after the U.S Army drove them from the Wallowa Valley in eastern Oregon.

In direct violation of the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla, the Nez Perce in 1877 were forced from their 7.5 million-acre homeland to a 750,000-acre reservation in Idaho.

For years, the tribe has worked to keep a connection to the ancestral land they were driven from. Last year, they successfully reclaimed part of that land.

The Nez Perce tribe purchased a 148-acre property in Joseph, known as Am'sáaxpa, or Place of Boulders, in December but could not formally perform a blessing ceremony until Thursday due to COVID-19 concerns.

The property had been privately owned and operated as a ranch for more than a hundred years. It is located at the edge of the city's rodeo grounds.

Surrounded by the Wallowa Mountains, the property rights include the house near Airport Road built in 1884, barns, grassland and Wallowa River frontage where the Nez Perce would camp and catch sockeye salmon.

It also includes the ridge where Chief Joseph once held council.

"We would hope that our ancestors would feel the tears of joy and their tears will turn to joy because they see our people coming back to the land that we belong to," Wheeler said before the ceremony. "Our people know that we sprang from this land and we're tied to the land in that manner and the land is also tied to us in the same way."
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The blessing, he said, was important in making sure ancestors could "hear our voices" and "feel our moccasins on the ground again."

Wheeler described the day as bittersweet, a victory following 144 years of sorrow and endurance.

Forced removal

Wheeler is a descendent of Chief Joseph, one of the several Nez Perce leaders who fought tirelessly to protect the Nez Perce tribe and its land.

Chief Joseph was among the Nez Perce who refused to abide by the 1863 treaty that had stripped the tribe from 90% of its land and required the move to the Idaho reservation.

War broke out in 1877 when Gen. Oliver O. Howard attempted to force non-treaty Nez Perce from the land. Under Chief Joseph's leadership, a band of about 700 people traveled more than 1,100 miles while they were pursued by 5,000 U.S troops.

Joseph's band surrendered to Gen. Nelson Miles and Howard on Oct. 5, 1877, after a final battle at Bears Paw Mountains in Montana. They had been 40 miles short of their goal to cross the Candian border.

It is estimated that more than 230 Nez Perce people died during the fighting retreat, including women and children.

After their surrender, U.S officials promised the Joseph band that they would be allowed to join the rest of their people at the reservation in Idaho. This turned out to be a lie.

"As they were crossing out of the valley, one of the elders at the time told the people to look back 'as it may be the last time we look at this land'," Wheeler said in an interview with the Statesman Journal. "And for many of those people, that was the last time that they looked at that land."

Those who surrendered were sent to Kansas for the winter and exiled to Oklahoma during the summer. It wouldn't be until 1885 that they would be allowed to return to the Pacific Northwest and even then, many including Chief Joseph were relocated to the Colville Reservation in Washington, away from their people on the Nez Perce reservation.

A long time coming

Wheeler remembers one of the first times he visited the property shortly after they signed for the land. He visited alongside other tribal leaders including former secretary Rachel Edwards, executive leader Quincy Ellenwood, cultural resource director Nakia Williamson-Cloud and land enterprise manager Kim Cannon.

"We sang a couple of songs at that time over there just to be there. We stood on the ground and just reflected about the moment of us being there, what that meant," Wheeler said, "knowing that in the future more of our tribal membership would be able to be there to celebrate and bless the ground that we were standing on."

The coronavirus pandemic only delayed the inevitable, said Nez Perce treasurer Casey Mitchell, also a descendant of Chief Joseph.

"The time is now for us getting our land back," he said. "It means a lot, not only to us here at the council table but to our people as well. Our people have been waiting a long time to go back to the land."

While the Nez Perce people have continued to fish and gather in the Wallowa Valley and near the property - a practice that the Nez Perce also fought to protect and preserve following years of struggles in asserting fishing rights guaranteed to them in U.S treaties - the purchase represents the opportunity to officially call the land their own again, Mitchell said.

It also reclaims an ancient and sacred camping ground.

"We have ancestors that are buried there," Mitchell said. "That's why we have a place name for it already, Am'sáaxpa, Place of Boulders, and when Shannon and everyone went to sing their songs it was to let our ancestors know that we're coming home. We let them know that we're home, we're there."

A homecoming

Nez Perce people filled the parking lot of Joseph High School Thursday, preparing to walk and ride through Joseph into Am'sáaxpa for the blessing ceremony.

A dozen people on horseback dressed in traditional regalia led more than a hundred others nearly a mile through Joseph to the property. A traditional long tent welcomed attendees at the top of the property.

The long tent and teepees had been set up the night before by Lee Whiteplume and his family.
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Whiteplume and several others were planning to camp on the property through the weekend.

The walk and ride were deliberate, Williamson-Cloud said.

"When they [ancestors] left, they left on horseback," he said.

Now, the Nez Perce were returning to the land on horseback.

"We're here, we're the survivors," Williamson-Cloud said. "We're doing what our ancestors couldn't."

Tribal leaders spoke before the blessing ceremony about what the day represented, reflecting on the history of the Nez Perce tribe and sharing joy about the day's historic event.

Drummers sang seven sets of seven songs, as is traditional in the blessing ceremony.

Ellenwood described the purchase as another steppingstone in Nez Perce's growth and history. He said his first visit to tour the property was emotional.

"I told them, 'We can't let this slip us by,' " Ellenwood said.

Shari BlackEagle couldn't let the opportunity to come to Oregon pass her by either.

She learned about the event three weeks ago and immediately reached out to her cousins to find out if family would be going.

She made the long trek to the Pacific Northwest for the first time, flying in from Oklahoma.

Her mother had moved to Oklahoma years ago and it's where BlackEagle still lives.

She met her father, Norton BlackEagle, face to face for the first time Wednesday night.

The whole day was "overwhelming," she said, finally able to meet family she's only known through Facebook and other social media. It's a homecoming in every sense, she said.

Their family descends from Chief Black Eagle, the husband of Chief Joseph's sister.

Janet BlackEagle, Shari's aunt, related to Shari's reaction. She'd joined family in Oregon when the Nez Perce celebrated the United Methodist Church's return of sacred land in Wallowa in May.

"I remember the closer we got [to Wallowa] the more it was like, hurry up and get there faster," Janet remembered. "We didn't get any sleep...when we got there, we all felt the spirits."

"It's been so exciting," she said.
Dianne Lugo is a reporter at the Statesman Journal covering equity and social justice. You can reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com, 503-936-4811 or on Twitter @DianneLugo.
"It's about arriving at a place to forgive the unforgivable," Norton BlackEagle said about the day.

The family was planning to return to Idaho that day, but not before celebrating Shari's visit some more. Before she had to return to Oklahoma, they'd be showing her other landmarks and sights around the Wallowa Valley.

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'Homecoming': 100 years after forceful removal, Nez Perce people celebrate reclaimed land

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More than 100 years after their forceful removal from the area, the Nez Perce people came together to bless the recently reclaimed land in Joseph.

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JOSEPH- A small celebration took place featuring Nimiipuu artists at the Josephy Center for Art and Culture in Joseph, Oregon. A group of seven Nez Perce artists and writers who call themselves luk'upsíimey "North Star" Collective, gathered at the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland for a week, practicing their art, learning and relearning their language together.

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Nez Perce Tribe Online Newsletter - Nez Perce Tribal News

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Nez Perce Tribe Online Newsletter - Nez Perce Tribal News

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Nez Perce Tribe Online Newsletter - Nez Perce Tribal News

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They were driven from their land in 1877 by U.S. soldiers. Now the Nez Perce tribe is home again.

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They were driven from their land in 1877 by U.S. soldiers. Now the Nez Perce tribe is home again.

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https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/they-were-driven-from-their-land-in-1877-by-u-s-soldiers-now-the-nez-perce-tribe-is-home-again/

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Today, the Nimiipuu people continue to exercise their treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather on their historic lands. Tribal citizens celebrate their rich culture through first foods feasts, powwows, and traditional ceremonies, such as the sweat lodge-a traditional form of spiritual cleansing and healing.

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The six articles in this set cover different aspects of the Nez Perce culture: clothes, shelter, food, transport, trade, and spirituality.
Students will be assigned one article each and form expert groups. They will work in their groups with notice and wonder. They weill find three interesting facts to share with their original groups.
Students will write a one paragraph summary of their article in their response journal.

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Dig for the Truth - Nez Perce fighting for their resources 

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Dig for the Truth - Nez Perce fighting for their resources 