Nez Perce National Historical Park

Nez Perce National Historical Park
Spalding Visitor Center
Coordinates: 46 ° 26 ′ 51.2 ″  N , 116 ° 49 ′ 22 ″  W.
Location:	Idaho , Washington , Montana , Oregon , United States
Next city:	Lewiston, Idaho
Surface:	18.5 km²
Founding:	May 15, 1965
Visitors:	239,908 (2016)

The Nez Perce National Historical Park is a memorial to the United States from the type of National Historical Park . It consists of 38 individual historically significant places that are associated with the Nez Percé Indian people , the exploration and settlement of the region by whites and the Nez Percé War in 1877. They are located in the four US states of Idaho , Oregon , Washington and Montana and comprise predominantly areas in the historic settlement area of ​​the Nez Percé, their current Indian reservations , as well as rest areas and battlefields of the long escape through Idaho and Montana in 1877.

The memorial was established in May 1965, expanded significantly in 1992, and is administered by the National Park Service . Of the total area of ​​around 18.5 km², around 13 km² are federally owned by the NPS, and around 5.5 km² are owned by other federal authorities, the states or private organizations. With 38 individual locations, it is the most decentralized area in the National Park Service.

History of the park

The impetus for founding the park came from two different motives. At the beginning of mass tourism after World War II, tourism gained importance in Idaho. A study found that in 1960 tourism was already in third place of the state's economic sectors, behind agriculture and forestry. In addition, the newly built US Highway 12 brought a stream of visitors along the Clearwater River to the region. To promote tourism, residents of central Idaho developed the idea of ​​honoring the exploration of the area by the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804-06 and the story of the mission by Henry H. Spalding and the early settlers in a memorial. Influential participants in the campaign were the local representatives of the Daughters of the American Revolution . Since 1935 there was a Spalding State Park at the site of the former mission station, but it was not so much a memorial site as a recreational area on the Clearwater River. On the other hand, the Nez Percé demanded recognition of their culture and history. Together they pursued the idea of ​​a joint memorial in Nez Perce County. The National Park Service explored the region and was sympathetic to the idea.

Robert Burns, the first director, and his wife Victoria opened the park in 1965

The United States Congress decided in 1965 to establish a Nez Perce National Historical Park in Nez Perce County on the condition that only 1500 acres (~ 6 km²) may be purchased, another 1500 may be transferred from other federal agencies to the NPS and another 1500 acres Agreements could be made with the landowners that they would not be allowed to permanently change the landscape (so-called scenic easements ). When it was officially inaugurated in 1970, the park consisted of only four, small and scattered sub-areas under the administration of the NPS, as well as 19 so-called cooperative sites , owned by various institutions and private individuals, recognized by the National Park Service as part of the memorial and shared with one another Signs were provided. Two more cooperative sites were added in 1977.

The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail was founded in 1978, with a similar, decentralized concept but in a linear fashion reminiscent of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804/06. The sites of the Nez Perce National Historical Park dedicated to the Lewis and Clark expedition have also been included in the new memorial.

In the course of the following decades, the interpretation of settlement history in the western United States shifted. The interest in the culture of the Indians grew and their political participation also increased. In 1985, Congress established the Nez Perce National Historic Trail , another decentralized memorial to commemorate the campaign against the Nez Percé in the form of a National Historic Trail, and placed it under the United States Forest Service . Here, too, there was overlap with the Nez Perce National Historical Park, individual sites were part of both memorials. This created the need for the National Park Service and the National Historical Park to shift their presentation more to the culture and history of the Nez Percé and the conflict of 1877. To this end, the responsibility of the park has been expanded considerably. In 1992, 13 further cooperative sites were added, which are now also outside Idaho in the states of Washington and Oregon for sites in the traditional settlement area of ​​the New Percé and their current residential areas and reservations, as well as in eastern Idaho and in Montana for the migration route.

Individual sites

The Heart of the Monster

Whitebird Valley Plain

Chief Joseph, 1877

• The Spalding Site is the largest section of the park, the location of the central visitor center with museum and administrative headquarters. It consists of the site of a historic village of the Nez Percé on the Clearwater River, the former mission station of Henry Spalding from 1838 and a number of historical buildings developed from it. It had been designated as Spalding State Park since 1935 and was the first area to be passed from the state of Idaho to the federal government when the Nez Perce National Historical Park was established. Adjacent properties were later purchased.
• To the east of Kamiah are The Heart of the Monster and Long Camp , which have been owned by the National Park Service since the National Historical Park was founded: The Heart of the Monster refers to the creation legend of the Nez Percé who a monster had eaten almost all animals before the coyote, who appears as a trickster here as in other Indian legends , defeated it. He let the monster eat him for one bite and then cut it up from the inside. With this he freed the other animals and when he distributed the parts of the dead monster to all the winds, he created the various (Indian) peoples from them. Only the valley where he had killed the monster remained empty. Then the coyote washed his bloody hands and every drop of water and blood became a Nez Percé Indian. The Heart of the Monster consists of two hills, sacred to the Nez Percé, which stand for the heart and liver of the monster. The participants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1806 stayed in the same neighborhood on the way back for more than four weeks because they had to wait for the snow to melt in the Bitterroot Mountains .
• The Battle of White Bird was the first engagement of the Nez Percé War of 1877. Here the Nez Percé defeated a cavalry unit led by Captain David Perry. The White Bird Battlefield is one of the park's founding areas.
• At Canoe Camp , the members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805, with the help of the Nez Percé, built the canoes that they took to the Pacific Ocean. The site was donated to the National Historical Park by the state of Idaho in 1966.
• Fort Lapwai was the headquarters from which the war against the New Percé was organized. Only restored accommodation for officers and their families has been preserved there; it can only be viewed from the outside.
• Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana is the only part of the National Historical Park that has separate federal memorial recognition. The place where the Nez Percé met the army in the summer of 1877 and the only major battle of the campaign took place wasplaced under the administration of the War Ministry as a military reserve in 1883anddesignatedas a national monument in 1910. In 1933 it was transferred to the National Park Service and in 1963 it was rededicated as a National Battlefield and given a visitor center . In 1972 it was expanded significantly, and since 1992 it has been part of the Nez Perce National Historical Park.
• At the Bear Paw Battlefield in Montana, the Nez Percé were only about 60 km from the Canadian border by the US Army. On October 5, 1877, after five days of small skirmishes and the siege of the tent camp, the 800 or so Nez Percé gave up under their only remaining chief, Chief Joseph .
• The Burial Site of Chief Joseph the Younger is on the Colville Reservation in Washington state, where Chief Joseph was exiled after the war. He died in 1904.

literature

• Ted Catton: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Administrative History . National Park Service, 1996 (also online: Administrative History )
• National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Museum Management Plan, 2005 (also online: Museum Management Plan (PDF file; 2.43 MB))

Web links

• National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park (official site; English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stats Report Viewer. National Park Service , accessed on December 27, 2017 (select the appropriate entry under "Park"). 
2. ↑ National Park Service: Anniversaries (PDF file)
3. ↑ Ted Catton: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Administrative History - Chapter 8c
4. ↑ National Park Service: Public Use Reports, 2010 Statistical Abstract (PDF; 949 kB)
5. ↑ The history of the park follows the description in Catton 1996
6. ^ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - The Spalding Site
7. ↑ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Nez Perce Legend Sites
8. ^ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Long Camp
9. ↑ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - White Bird Battlefield
10. ^ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Canoe Camp
11. ↑ Ted Catton: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Administrative History - Chapter 3
12. ↑ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Fort Lapwai
13. ↑ National Park Service: Big Hole National Battlefield (official site; English)
14. ↑ Ted Catton: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Administrative History - Chapter 8d
15. ↑ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Bear Paw Battlefield
16. ^ National Park Service: Nez Perce National Historical Park - Oregon and Washington Sites