Nez Perce Country

Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.

With an Introduction by Jeremy Five Crows

University of Nebraska Press 2007

Reviewed by Darby C. Stapp, PhD, Richland, WA

Nez Perce Country provides basic information on the prehistory of the Snake and Clearwater River region, the culture of the Nez Perce, and the history of the people since the arrival of the White Man to the Pacific Northwest. It is a highly readable text, but the book contains little more than words; only fourteen illustrations are included. An introduction by tribal member Jeremy FiveCrows provides a 21st century Nez Perce perspective on the land and its importance to the people today.

The main text originally appeared in 1983 as Nez Perce Country, A Handbook for the Nez Perce National Historical Park, Idaho (National Park 1983). To write the text for the guidebook, the National Park Service solicited Alvin Josephy Jr., longtime writer and friend of the Nez Perce. The Park Service supplemented Josephy's text with dozens of illustrations, many in color, and a 40-page travel guide to Nez Perce country. The Handbook is an outstanding little book and well worth the $3.50 it cost twenty years ago.

The 2007 version of Nez Perce Country lacks the glitz of the 1983 version. It is unfortunate that University of Nebraska Press was unable to include the numerous photographs, drawings, and maps included in the 1983 version. It seems odd that there is no recognition of the relationship of this book to the earlier version; only a short note on changes made to the spelling of Nez Perce words is included.

Mr. Josephy was a good choice to write a history of the Nez Perce. The writer first met the Nez Perce in the 1940s when he was working on assignment for Time Magazine (Josephy 2000). The meeting started a lifelong interest in the history and future of the American Indian people. He spent most of his career and then his retirement years using his pen to effect change, writing and publishing books about American Indians for American Heritage and other publishing houses. Particularly noteworthy was his role in developing President Nixon's Indian Policy during the late 1960s (Josephy 1969).

The book begins with Jeremy FiveCrows' Introduction, entitled "I am of this Land." FiveCrows explains to the reader the connection that tribal members such as him feel to the earth. He discusses the homeland, the environment, the legends, the salmon, the wolf, and the horse. He concludes his essay with the following: "The message that "we are of this land" is true for everyone on the Earth. I hope that what you learn from our history and our tribe will inspire you to make that phrase meaningful in your own life" (p. xvii).

Mr. Josephy, who passed away in 2005, would have been pleased to see the Introduction written by a Native American writer. When I met with him in Joseph, Oregon, in 2003, he was in the midst of working with indigenous writers to document histories of Lewis and Clark. He was clearly excited about working with Native American writers, asking me if I knew of similar efforts in Northwest Indian Country and whether I though his vision of robust writings from Native American writers would materialize. It did, posthumously, with a collection of essays published in his final work, Lewis and Clark though Indian Eyes (Josephy 2006).

The remainder of the book is Josephy's work, which he organized into nine chapters. Chapter 1 begins at the beginning of Nez Perce culture with a description of origins, and an overview of the 12,000 years of Nez Perce life before the White Man's arrival. Included in Chapter 1 are ethnographic descriptions, including topics such as village political economy, material culture, and religion.

The remaining eight chapters focus on the history of Indian-White relations, and run more or less chronologically. Chapter 2 addresses the initial impacts that might have occurred as American and Europeans began to encroach on neighboring regions, and the arrival of Lewis and Clark. Chapter 3 covers the fur trade, while Chapter 4 discusses the new religions brought by the missionaries and the divisions they created among the people. Chaper 5 discusses the treaties signed by the U.S. and Nez Perce. Chapter 6 sets the stage for the treaty problems created by the 1863 treaty, developed in response to problems created by the flood of gold miners to Nez Perce Country following the discovery of gold in 1860. Chapter 7 details the hostilities that ensued between the U.S. Army and the Wallowa Band, commonly referred to as the Nez Perce War of 1877. Chapter 8 follows the Nez Perce after the 1877 war, and Chapter 9 provides an overview of the Nez Perce since the 1940s.

I think it was good for Josephy's description of Nez Perce culture to get reprinted into the new Nez Perce Country so that it could be made available to people with an interest in Nez Perce culture. Comprehensive cultural histories of indigenous groups are difficult to write; they are hard to organize and to decide what information to include and in what proportion. Josephy was well-suited for the task of writing a comprehensive overview. For over 60 years, he was a friend of the Nez Perce; his experiences early on led him and his wife Betty on a trail of Indian activism. He had become well versed in the documentary evidence and oral history of the Nez Perce early on when researching material for his first Nez Perce book, the classic The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest (Josephy 1965). He lived in Nez Perce country during the summer at his ranch in Joseph, Oregon, and he was still working on joint projects with the Nez Perce and other tribes when he died. He probably knew and cared about Nez Perce history and the Nez Perce people as much as any non-Nez Perce writer.

Scholars may pooh-pooh Nez Perce Country because of its lack of cited sources and because it was written over 25 years ago. But the book was not written for scholars. It was written for the masses. We should value this representation of Nez Perce culture and history for what it is: a comprehensive historical description of the Nez Perce Indians by a major writer who spent his life studying and befriending the Nez Perce people.

References

Josephy, Alvin Jr. 1969. The American Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs: A Study with Recommendations. In, Red Power: The American Indians' Fight for Freedom, edited by Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., pp. 93-127. 1985 Bison Books. 1971 Original Publication 1971, McGraw Hill.

Josephy, Alvin M. Jr. 1965. The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Josephy, Alvin M. Jr. 2000. A Walk Toward Oregon: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Josephy, Alvin M. Jr., editor. 2006. Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

National Park Service. 1983. Nez Perce Country, A Handbook for Nez Perce National Historical Park, Idaho. National Park Service. Washington, D.C.

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