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Historical Background

Revisiting the Nez Perces—the long wait

The expedition was back again in Nez Perce country. On May 4, among some tribesmen met by chance about 3 miles up the Snake from the end of the shortcut was Chief Tetoharsky, the downriver guide. At his suggestion, with the help of three Indian canoes, a crossing was made to the north bank. He said a better road to the Nez Perce villages ran along it for about 4 miles and thence along the north side of the Clearwater. As the march proceeded, the scant supply of trade goods was used to purchase dogs, horses, and roots from the Indians. On the evening of May 5, camp was made along the mouth of a stream that Lewis and Clark called Colter's Creek (present Potlatch River) near some Nez Perce habitations. [131]

On the 7th, following the recommendation of the Nez Perce guide, the river was crossed to its south side, where he said game was more plentiful and a better road ran inland from the river to the main villages. Departing from the westbound route at a point in the vicinity of Canoe Creek about 9 miles below its Canoe Camp of the previous year, the party traveled southeastward. That day, an Indian gave Lewis and Clark two canisters of powder his dog had dug up from the cache placed at nearby Canoe Camp the preceding fall and which he had saved so that he could restore them to their rightful owners.

The next day, May 8, Lewis and Clark came across their old friend Chief Twisted Hair and a Chief Cutnose, who had been away on a war party the previous year. Twisted Hair seemed distant and cool. Apparently he had clashed with Cutnose and Broken Arm, probably the principal chief, over the horses Lewis and Clark had left in his care. Twisted Hair charged that on Cutnose's return he expressed anger because Twisted Hair had agreed to supervise the horses. Cutnose claimed he and Broken Arm had to stop the young men of Twisted Hair's band from riding and abusing the animals and had to water and care for them. In the quarrel's aftermath, they had scattered, but the Indians promised to round them up. On the 9th, when everyone proceeded to Twisted Hair's lodge, Willard, Twisted Hair, and two native boys took a packhorse and retrieved about half the saddles and some ammunition that had been cached the past year at Canoe Camp. They also collected 21 of the expedition's horses.

On the following day, a move was made to Broken Arm's village, situated in a protected valley along Lawyer's Creek. For the next few days, councils were held. Fortunately, communication was better than on the outbound trip, through the medium of a Shoshoni captive of the Nez Perces. Responding to pleas for food, the chiefs provided roots, root bread, dried fish, and two horses. Gifts were exchanged.

After having hurried from the coast to make an early crossing of the mountains over the Lolo Trail, Lewis and Clark were taken aback when they learned they could not do so yet—probably not for 3 or 4 weeks at the earliest. The Indians said that the snow was too deep in the mountains and that no forage was available for the horses. A look eastward at the towering, snow-covered Bitterroots buttressed these statements. Resigned to the need to stay awhile in the area, the two commanders decided to move to a location a few miles to the east that the chiefs recommended for its good hunting and nearby pasturage.

On May 13 the expedition set out. It moved several miles down Lawyer's Creek and then turned north along the Clearwater, at a high stage because of melting snow in the mountains. The next day, aided by the Nez Perces and one of their canoes, the explorers crossed over with their baggage and swam the horses over. There, along the river in a thickly timbered level bottom, nearly opposite the present town of Kamiah, Idaho, and within but close to the eastern boundary of the present Nez Perce Indian Reservation, they set up camp. They utilized a highly defensible site of an "ancient" Indian habitation, a circular area about 30 feet in diameter sunk about 4 feet in the ground and surrounded by a 3-1/2-foot-high wall of earth. Around this, they erected shelters of sticks and grass facing outwards, and deposited their baggage within the sunken area under a shelter they constructed.

This camp, though nameless to Lewis and Clark, has since become known as Long Camp or Camp Chopunnish. The expedition stayed there for about a month, longer than at any place except Fort Mandan, Fort Clatsop, and Camp Wood. "Chopunnish" was one of the captains' names for the Nez Perces. The free time available allowed considerable relaxation. Footraces were run with the braves. Many dances were held, Cruzatte as usual supplying the fiddle music.

But the shortage of palatable food, acute because the salmon had not yet arrived in the river, smashed morale. Complaints were frequent about the dietary staple, roots, purchased from the Indians at a dear rate. Supplements were an occasional deer or bear. Hunting was stepped up, and trading parties were sent out to various villages to procure dried fish, roots, and root bread. Chief Broken Arm won Lewis' praise for his generosity and "civilized" spirit by telling him he could kill any of the horses running at large in the neighborhood when he needed them for food—a practice the Nez Perces themselves were sometimes forced to resort to.

As soon as the expedition arrived back among the Nez Perces Clark found that some simple ministrations the preceding fall had gained him a reputation as a medicine man. Lewis called him the Indians' "favorite phisician." Treating chiefs, braves, women, and children alike for such ills as scrofula, ulcers, rheumatism, sore eyes, and weak limbs, he dressed sores and wounds, drained abcesses, and distributed salves, laxatives, and eyewash.

Much was learned about the tribe, which owned a wealth of horses. Its members were fine equestrians, and they loved to race their mounts. Their saddles were constructed of joined wood covered with skins and buffalo robes. On several occasions, chiefs made gifts of superb gray or white steeds to Lewis and Clark. The tribe seemed to prize white horses most of all, then the spotted breed known today as the Appaloosa.

On June 10, eager to cross the Lolo Trail as soon as possible, Lewis and Clark moved from Camp Chopunnish to a location adjacent to the trail's western terminus. They traveled northeastward about 8 miles to the southern part of Weippe Prairie. There, close to the place where they had first met the Nez Perce Indians the preceding autumn, camp was established.