"It is time once again to let the land hear the familiar sounds that have been developed over thousands of years here in the land of winding waters, the rhythm of the drum beat, the songs, the language, the prayers, the people, and all creation joined to co- exist and respect mother earth and this law of the land.
Our elders, whose bones remain in this beautiful land, would be proud that everyone here has a genuine concern to maintain the Nee- Me-Poo (We The People, Nez Perce) culture. It has fallen upon the shoulders of this generation to capture the history and through cultural understanding, respect this land that we live in. We all came together at this historical location to extend our concerns for a better world by maintaining for future generations the knowledge that made this land a wonderful place to live. Whatever we accomplish in these developmental years will be appreciated by many peoples across the nation and around the world. Thank you for your attendance, support, and kindness." - Taz E. E. Conner 1994

Our Mission

To tell the story of the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail as part of Oregon's four National Historical Trails.

To secure, develop, and manage the property and related assets in a manner that enhances and enriches relationships among the descendants of indigenous people and the contemporary inhabitants of the Wallowa Valley.

To create a physical place to build these relationships and to support, preserve and celebrate the customs and culture of the indigenous inhabitants.

To assist in assembling the Wallowa Band Nez Perce culture and history in order to provide interpretation, knowledge and understanding to those who visit the grounds.

To establish an Interpretive Center which fosters understanding of the Nez Perce and other cultures in the Wallowa country.

Organizational History

The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center Inc. is a partner in the Nez Perce National Historical Park. The Wallowa site is designated traditional Lostine Campsite by the National Park Service.

In mid-1994 residents of Wallowa County, in conjunction with the dispersed Nez Perce descendants in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, organized an ad hoc Nez Perce Trail Coalition to identify how best to provide a place for the regular return of the descendants to the valley. In this place they hoped to tell the story of the people who once resided in what is now Wallowa County. They wanted to trace, clarify, and explain the story of the Wallowa Band Nez Perce expelled from the area in 1877. They also wanted to welcome Nez Perce to the Wallowa community.

The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center Inc. (also known as WBNPTIC, Inc. and the Wallowa Nez Perce Homeland), a non-profit organization, was chartered on September 14, 1995. Today an active group of local residents and Nez Perce people from Washington, Oregon and Idaho are working to restore a part of the Nez Perce culture in Wallowa County.

WBNPTIC enjoys strong local and regional support. The coalition includes 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 and the National Park Service

The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center, Inc. received a strong financial boost from the Oregon Trails Coordinating Council's commemorative license plate matching grant program. The grant program designated $250,000 in matching funds for the development of interpretation on the Nez Perce Trail in Oregon. An interpretive project at Wallowa is a significant cultural, historic, and economic resource for the residents of Wallowa County, the Nez Perce people, and visitors to Northeastern Oregon. The project is consistent with the State of Oregon's focus on heritage tourism as a significant key industry niche market.

Tamkaliks Celebration

The Tamkaliks Celebration (formerly Wallowa Band Descendants Friendship Feast & Pow Wow) is a celebration and recognition of the continuing Nez Perce presence in the Wallowa Valley. This year the18th annual celebration takes place July 18th, 19th, and 20th, 2008, in Wallowa, Oregon. A standing committee of the WBNPTIC, Inc. oversees and organizes the Tamkaliks Celebration. The 2008 Tamkaliks Committee President is Brian Conner. He may be reached through the WBNPTIC, Inc. office.

The Tamkaliks story is best told in the words of one of the original organizers, Terry Crenshaw:

"In 1990 Taz Conner, a descendant of Old Chief Joseph, Tuekakas, was invited by the City of Wallowa to help them plan some kind of Native American festival in Wallowa. It was decided that a friendship feast and pow wow would be the most appropriate event. Since that time a group of ten to fifteen local volunteers have met, planned, and worked nearly year-round to conduct the event. During the pow wow and feast about forty to fifty local people and ten to twelve Native Americans help in putting it on.

Our first year, 1991, we held our pow wow in the high school gym and the feast on the school grounds. We had about fifty participants and all felt it was a great success. By the third year we had to move to a five acre site and set up our pow wow and feast outside because it had grown too large for the gym.
In 1998 the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Pow Wow and Friendship Feast was renamed Tamkaliks (from where you can see the mountains) and moved to the new Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center prospective site at the edge of the city of Wallowa.

Tamkaliks is a three day celebration of traditional Native American culture. It is also a place and time where local people can observe and learn about that culture and a bridge of friendship between the former and present inhabitants of the Wallowa County. For three days we have traditional Native American songs and dances. The traditional wear of the dancers is spectacular. Outside the dance area we have 25-35 concessionaires selling food, Native American crafts and other items. Along the river the participants camp during the pow wow, many setting up teepees. The sight of teepees along the river after many years'
absence is wonderful.

On the last day of the festival we have the friendship feast. The Native American community provides salmon, deer and elk and locals bring pot luck dishes. For the deer and elk a group of Indians come early and exercise their treaty rights by hunting for the game for the feast. A local committee prepares the fish and game.
At last years feast we had about 500 people. We have speeches, songs, and prayers at the feast. As time goes on we have had more and more contact between the locals and Indians and we are beginning to see true friendships form and because of this friendship, each year we get greater support for the event."

Remembering the Past

The band of Nez Perce Indians who made the Wallowa Valley their home traditionally gathered fish, game, and wild plants. They followed changing seasons to headwaters of rivers and high mountains of the Wallowas in the summer and returned to deep canyons of the Snake River and its tributaries in winter.

At Walla Walla in 1855, Indians from many Northwest tribes, including almost all Nez Perce chiefs and sub-chiefs, signed a treaty leaving the Wallowas and large chunks of land in the present states of Idaho and Washington to the Nez Perce. In 1863, with the discovery of gold and increased settler pressure, a new meeting of Nez Perce bands was convened. The government asked the Indians to reduce their lands by almost six million acres. Accepting a reservation approximately one-tenth of what they agreed to in 1855.

Several chiefs, including Old Chief Joseph, father of the famous Young Chief Joseph, Heinmot Tookyalakekt, walked out, and from that time on became known as ‘non-treaty' Nez Perce. After this walkout, an Idaho Nez Perce chief named Lawyer and other chiefs were browbeaten into signing a treaty on behalf of all Nez Perce. Government folks reported
to Washington ‘the job was done.'

Young Chief Joseph never accepted the 1863 treaty. He did continue to befriend Wallowa settlers and government officials. But he also looked for a way for his people to remain in the Wallowas of Oregon. In fact, in 1873, the government briefly decided that Wallowa lands had not been legally ceded and ordered the removal of white settlers. Howls from settlers and Oregon politicians caused a quick reversal of that decision.

Following the defeat of Custer in 1876 a new discipline was imposed on Indians by the US Army. Young Chief Joseph's band of Nez Perce and all others must constrain themselves to the boundaries of the 1863 reservation. But after searching the confines of a greatly reduced territory, Young Chief Joseph found no land suitable for his people that was not already occupied.

After discussions in May 1877 General Howard incarcerated the Nez Perce spokesman, Toohoolhooltzote. Young Chief Joseph then decided his people would have to resettle away from the reservation lands in Idaho to preserve their culture and religion. As a result of this some dissension broke out. Some Nez Perce preferred to settle in Lapwai to avoid retaliation by the U.S. government, while others prepared to travel to buffalo country or Canada for freedom. In June 1877 near the reservation young warriors killed some white settlers. One of the warriors was the son of a man killed by a settler. The ‘Nez Perce War' - really a 1200 mile retreat ending 40 miles short of Canada - ensued.

Map of the Nez Perce Trail (click to enlarge)

At the conclusion of the fighting, Young Chief Joseph and the others were sent to Oklahoma, Indian Territory, where many died. Joseph pleaded to Congress, "If I can not go to my own home, let me have a home in some country where my people will not die so fast."

According to historian Alvin Josephy, "In 1885, after ... massive campaign by eastern humanitarians, Joseph and the other exiles were allowed to return to the Northwest. But Idaho settlers and politicians still considered the 150 surviving Nez Perce ‘dangerous troublemakers,' ‘criminals,' and ‘murderers,' and even threatened Chief Joseph with death. Unable to join the other Nez Perce on the Idaho reservation, or return to their homeland in Oregon's Wallowa Valley, they were taken under military escort ...(to live among)... non-Nez Perce Indians on the Colville reservation in Washington Territory." (500 Nations, page 417).

The bands of Nez Perce who fled with Joseph's people are now scattered in exile from Canada to the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon. But a majority of the non-treaty Nez Perce, descendants of the participants in the Flight of 1877, remain in exile in Nespelem, Washington, on the Colville Indian Reservation, to this day.

Progress and Funding

Funding for the project comes from many sources. The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center, Inc. was founded with a grant from the Oregon Trail Coordinating Council. This grant was matched with grants from Lamb Foundation, US Forest Service, Oregon Community Foundation, Cycle Oregon, Meyer Memorial Trust, Northeast Oregon Alliance, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, and many gifts from individuals and businesses. The Rural Business Cooperative Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provided funds for purchase of another 160 acres and further site development. A stock donation was used to begin a permanent endowment fund for site management and WBNPTIC, Inc. programs. The fund is managed for WBNPTIC by the Oregon Community Foundation.

Federal and private funding purchased the Wallowa Homelands site--a total of 320 acres at the edge of the Wallowa River, Wallowa, Oregon. An initial 160 acres was purchased in September of 1997 from Norman and Mamie McCrae. A service road, water system, and electricity were developed in the summer of 1998. The permanent dance arbor was constructed and completed in 1999 has been used every year since then. Recent developments include the purchase of an additional 160 acres and the creation of a one mile hiking trail to the top of the nearby Tick Hill in 2000. Future plans include interpretive signs, shower facilities, a care taker residence, developed permanent campgrounds, a longhouse, and cooking facilities. Partnership with the National Park Service will develop a high quality cultural or interpretive center to house programs and exhibits telling the Nez Perce story. Long term goals include year-round use (i.e. meeting, study and recreation) by the Nez Perce people from reservations in Idaho, Washington, Oregon and people of the adjoining communities of the Wallowa Country. The Wallowa Homelands site is the permanent home for the annual TamKaLiks Celebration.

Donations

The Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center, Inc. will help to preserve the culture of the Nez Perce people while interpreting their story for others to learn. Your donation will keep the story of the Nez Perce people alive. Please print this form and mail it with your donation.

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Nez Perce Art in the Wallowa

This Master Plan was presented to the General Board on Saturday, March 8, 2003, in Wallowa, Oregon. The links below are for the individual sections of the Master Plan.  You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open these files.  It may take several minutes to open the larger files, depending on your Internet connection speed.  Just click on a section to open that file.

Qe'ciyew'yew' for taking the time to review the Master Plan.

Cover Page

0.0 Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Context

3.0 The Master Plan

4.0 Implementation

5.0 Appendix.pdf