On the Trail of the Walwáma

The Walwá-ma were a band of the Niimíipuu (Nez Perce, or "the walking people") who lived along the Wala-wa (Wallowa, or "winding waters") River.  They were led by Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it (the younger Chief Joseph, 1840-1904).

The Walwá-ma lived in the Wallowa River Valley and surrounding grasslands and forests during spring, summer and fall.  In winter, they moved into the warmer canyons of the Imnaha and Snake Rivers and Joseph Creek.  Their lives followed the rivers, especially the Wala-wa (Wallowa) River.

A council between the U.S. Government and various Indian tribes had been held at Fort Walla Walla in 1855 in response to increasing settlement and mining pressure on native lands.  Many tribes attended, including representatives of various bands of Nez Perce.  The resulting treaty limited Nez Perce lands to 7.5 million acres, but preserved the Wallowa River Valley homeland of the Walwá-ma.  The younger Chief Joseph and his father, Old Chief Joseph, signed it.

However,  in 1863, discovery of gold in Idaho resulted in U.S. Government pressure for a new treaty, known as the "Thief Treaty," which reduced Nez Perce lands another 90% and now excluded the Wallowa River Valley homeland.  Because the homeland was excluded, the Walwá-ma refused to sign it and thus were considered a "non-treaty" band.  They continued to live on their homeland and abided by the earlier 1855 treaty.

Old Chief Joseph died in 1871 and was buried near a Walwá-ma fishing camp at the confluence of the Lostine and Wallowa Rivers near present-day Wallowa.  The younger Chief Joseph later said, "I buried him in that beautiful valley of winding waters.  I love that land more than all the rest of the world."  This love of their homeland and the place where their great leader was buried helps explain why the Walwá-ma would not abandon their homeland as proposed in the 1863 treaty.

Nevertheless, in 1877, the U.S. Government ordered the Walwá-ma to leave their homeland. Having experienced the physical violence that accompanied forcible ejection, the Walwá-ma decided instead to leave on their own terms, and began a 1,170-mile exodus from the Wallowa River Valley, out of Oregon, across the Snake River, into Idaho and eventually Montana.  They were chased by the U.S. military and were eventually surrounded near Bear Paw, Montana, about 40 miles from the border with Canada, where they were heading to seek refuge.  Their flight is one of the most fascinating and sorrowful events in Western U.S. history. Chief Joseph, Chief Looking Glass, Chief White Bird, Chief Ollokot, Chief Lean Elk, and others led nearly 750 Nez Perce men, women, and children and twice that many horses on a trip that lasted from June to October of 1877.

Unable to fight any longer, Chief Joseph surrendered to the Army with the understanding that he and his people would be allowed to return to the reservation in western Idaho. In violation of this agreement, he was transported between various forts and reservations on the southern Great Plains before being moved to the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington State, where he lived until his death in 1904.  Chief Joseph's life remains iconic of the American Indian Wars. For his passionate, principled resistance to his tribe's forced removal, Joseph became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker.

In 1986, the U.S. Congress added the trail of the Walwá-ma from their homeland in Wallowa, Oregon to Bear Paw, Montana, as a National Historic Trail now known as the Nez Perce (Nimíipuu or Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail.  An early poster map published by the National Park Service shows the route of the Nimíipuu:

Fast-forward over 100 years to present-day Wallowa, Oregon.  Due to desecration of Old Chief Joseph's grave in the late 1800's, the U.S. Government, with the permission of the local tribe, moved the gravesite to near the town of Joseph, further upstream on the Wallowa River about 25 miles, to a 5.1 acre cemetery on the west side of Oregon Highway 82, just north of Wallowa Lake and 1 mile south of Joseph, Oregon.  

The gravesite is now a part of the Nez Perce National Historical Park, unique as a national historic park in that it comprises 38 sites located throughout the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.  The park includes sites in the traditional aboriginal lands of the Nez Perce people that are strongly associated with the 1877 resistance of Chief Joseph and his band.  The park was established in 1965 and a museum was opened at the park headquarters in Spalding, Idaho, in 1983.

Over those ensuing 100 years, Nez Perce tribal members would regularly visit the native homeland in the Wallowa River Valley, but were met with animosity by the white residents of the area.  Over time, however, attitudes started to change, and in 1989, Taz Conner, a descendant of Old Chief Joseph, was invited by the City of Wallowa to help plan some kind of Native American festival at Wallowa.

This original invitation eventually led to a yearly powwow and friendship feast, which grew year to year to become the Tamkaliks Celebration and Friendship Feast, held every year the third weekend in July. The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center, now also called the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland, was formed in 1995 and in 1997 purchased a 160 acre site adjacent to the City of Wallowa. Again, in 2000, an adjoining 160 acre parcel was purchased, for a total of 320 acres. Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland enjoys strong local and regional support. Contributors include private citizens, representatives from business and economic development, local government, the visitor industry, historians, educators, representatives from the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the National Park Service, and the USDA Forest Service.

As it happens, the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland sits next to the Wallowa River RV Park, the RV park where we are staying.  In the photo below, which is from the Homeland web site, you can see the Homeland stretching out to the left of the Wallowa River, which flows down the center of the photograph.  Our RV park is circled at the top:

We stumbled on the Homeland as we took our coffee walk this morning (between drenching rain showers).  Our introduction to the Homeland was this inviting gate and Long House interpretive center:

While the interpretive center is closed until later in the season, there was no doubt that we were welcome to walk the grounds and read the interpretive signs explaining the purpose of the Homeland and the history of its people:

A circular road leads from the interpretive center, around the Homeland Grounds, which are used for a variety of tribal and other purposes, including annual powwows and celebrations.  The first exhibit we encountered was this silhouette steel sculpture of what appears to be a Walwá-ma family travelling.  One can imagine, perhaps, that it represents the people as they conducted their seasonal migrations to and from the Homeland, or, perhaps, more sadly, as they fled the Homeland in 1877:

The grounds include a huge, roofed Dance Arbor, or pavilion, which can be rented for picnics or other gatherings, this ceremonial long house, and a sweat lodge, a sacred place where one can go to cleanse both body and mind, and prepare for daily life, hunting or ceremonial activities.

While the Homeland grounds are kept mowed, the stream which flows through the grounds (we think it is named Whiskey Creek) has been protected by leaving the ground on either side in a natural condition:

Part of the mission of the Homeland is to "enhance and enrich the relationships among the descendants of indigenous people and the contemporary inhabitants of the Wallowa country."  To advance that mission, a steel truss pedestrian footbridge was built across Bear Creek and the Wallowa River to physically connect the Homeland with the City of Wallowa:

From the bridge, we enjoyed a view of the undeveloped Wallowa River and glimpsed some of the natural surroundings that it has enjoyed over the centuries:

Signs on the bridge explain the history of the Wallowa River and the bridge and urge each visitor who crosses the bridge to think about the Homeland 100 years ago, and 100 years before that, and to consider how the visitor is a part of the story of the next 100 years.

We thought about this as we continued our walk around the Homeland grounds and past Tick Hill, up which winds a 4 mile loop trail to a viewpoint over the Wallowa River Valley:

We decided that this will make a wonderful hike in a few days when the weather improves.  With some luck, we might also try to explore the 1877 route of the Walwá-ma down the Imnaha River to Dug Bar on the Snake River.

Stay tuned!