"kál'a wéetespeme wées, kex koníx 'íin páyna: I belong to the land, from which I came" Nez Perce Place Names

A special lecture with Harry H. Slickpoo Jr.,Collections Specialist at the Nez Perce Tribe’s hitéemenwees Research Library and Nez Perce Language Teacher at Lewiston High School.

About the Lecture

The Nez Perce people have always been connected to this place we call home, here in the Pacific Northwest. Our traditional homelands have been described as being situated between the Bitterroot Mountains on the east, and the Blue Mountains of Oregon on the west. The land use by Nez Perce Tribe, at what we call today our usual and accustomed areas, is well beyond the 13.5 million acres we call home in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Historic land use ranged from the Pacific coast, to parts of northern California, and onto the Great Plains beyond what is known today as Yellowstone National Park.

This presentation will explore the names of these places and provide a unique Nez Perce perspective to how we are connected to these places that now carry names of colonization, discovery, and conflict on the land. Specific areas will be discussed including the Southern Nez Perce Trail—today known as the Magruder Corridor—and the Northern Nez Perce Trail—today known as the Lolo Motorway, and the Nez Perce National Historic Trail of 1877.