In 1847 two barrels of “Indian curiosities” shipped by missionary Henry Spalding to Dr. Dudley Allen arrived in Kinsman, Ohio. The items inside included exquisite Nez Perce shirts, dresses, baskets, and horse regalia--some decorated with porcupine quills and others with precious dentalium shells and rare elk teeth. Donated to Oberlin College in 1893 and transferred to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in 1942, the Spalding-Allen Collection languished in storage until Nez Perce National Historic Park curators rediscovered it in 1976. The OHS loaned most of the artifacts to the National Park Service, where they received conservation treatment and were displayed in climate-controlled cases. Josiah Pinkham, Nez Perce Cultural Specialist, notes that they embody “the earliest and greatest centralization of ethnographic objects for the Nez Perce people. You don’t have a collection of this size, this age, anywhere else in the world.” Twelve years later, the OHS abruptly recalled the collection. Eventually, under public pressure, they agreed to sell the articles to the Nez Perce at their full appraised value of $608,100, allowing just six months for payment. The tribe mounted a brilliant grassroots fundraising campaign, as well as a sponsorship drive for specific pieces. Schoolchildren, National Public Radio, artists, and musicians contributed. Major donors came forward, and one day before the deadline, the Nez Perce Tribe met their goal. The author draws on interviews with Nez Perce experts and extensive archival research to tell the Spalding-Allen Collection story. He also examines the ethics of acquiring, bartering, owning, and selling Native cultural history, as Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous communities continue their efforts to restore their exploited cultural heritage from collectors and museums--pieces that are living, breathing, intimately connected to their home region, and inspirational for sustaining cultural traditions.

Organized both chronologically and thematically, Encounters with the People is an edited, annotated compilation of unique primary sources related to Nez Perce history¿ Native American oral histories, diary excerpts, military reports, maps, and more. Generous elders shared their collective memory of carefully-guarded stories passed down through multiple generations, beginning with early Nimiipuu/Euro-American contact and extending until just after the Treaty of 1855 held at Walla Walla. The editors scoured archives, federal document repositories, and museums in search of little-known documents related to regional cultural and environmental history¿most published for the first time or found only in obscure sources. Part of the Voices from Nez Perce Country series, this essential reference work includes a thorough, up-to-date, annotated bibliography.

This is the story of the so-called Inland Empire of teh Northwest, that rugged and majestic region bounded east and west by the Cascades and the Rockies, from the time of the great exploration of Lewis and Clark to the tragic defeat of Chief Joseph in 1877. Explorers, fur traders, miner, settlers, missionaries, ranchers and above all a unique succession of Indian chiefs and their tribespeople bring into focus one of the permanently instructive chapters in the history of the American West.

Two Nez Perce historians offer a detailed examination of the relationship between Corps of Discovery explorers and a single tribe, investigating what Lewis and Clark knew or misunderstood regarding the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu), searching for clues about the hosts¿ reactions to the bearded strangers, and presenting rich Nez Perce oral tradition. Their careful re-evaluation reverses the historical lens to shed extraordinary new light on expedition events. Originally published by The Dakota Institute in 2015.

The rivers, canyons, and prairies of the Columbia Basin are the homeland of the Nez Perce. The story of how western settlement drastically affected the Nimiipuu is one of the great and at times tragic sagas of American history. This work describes the Nez Perce or Nimiipuu's attachment to the land and their way of life, religion, and culture.

Originally released in 1986 as Renegade Tribe, this award-winning title sensitively retells the compelling saga of western expansion and Indian-white conflict from a Native American perspective and offers a new foreword by Chief Tilcoax's descendent Wilson Wewah.