About the Nez Perce National Historical Park
Nez Perce National Historical Park is not one place but 38, scattered across Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington and bound together by the history of the nimíipuu (Nez Perce) people rather than by geography. Congress authorized the park on May 15, 1965; its sites total about 4,561 acres. Twenty-six of them lie on or near the Nez Perce Reservation in north-central Idaho and can be seen in a single long day. Headquarters and the main museum are at Spalding, on the Clearwater River ten miles east of Lewiston. Building that museum took longer than planned: construction began in 1979, halted when Native graves were found on the site, and resumed only after remains and artifacts were cared for in consultation with the tribe. It opened in June 1983.
The park's own phrase is "a park about a people, for all people," and its sites span the whole Nez Perce story. Some are story places such as Heart of the Monster, tied to the people's origin account. Weippe Prairie is where the Lewis and Clark expedition met the Nez Perce in 1805. The Spalding grounds mark the 1836 Presbyterian mission of Henry and Eliza Spalding. The largest group of sites traces the flight of 1877, when Chief Joseph's band and others left Oregon's Wallowa country rather than be confined to a reservation and were pursued by the U.S. Army for 126 days and more than 1,170 miles: White Bird Canyon, the Clearwater, Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana, Camas Meadows, Canyon Creek, and finally Bear Paw, where Joseph surrendered in Montana Territory. The Old Chief Joseph Gravesite in Wallowa County, Oregon, is also part of the park, and the U.S. Forest Service's Nez Perce National Historic Trail links many of these places.
The museum at Spalding holds the Wetxuuwíitin' collection of Nez Perce objects, returned to the homeland and presented in an exhibit marking the 25th anniversary of that return, along with what the park describes as the only known complete buffalo-hide tipi belonging to a Nez Perce. A Virtual Museum on the park website lets you examine many of these pieces from home.
Collections and Research Services
The park's Archives and Research Center at Spalding holds administrative and resource-management records, donated manuscript collections, photographs, maps, and audio recordings, plus a library of about 3,000 books, theses, dissertations, and reports. Roughly 4,000 digitized images are available online through Washington State University, and the library catalog can be searched through the National Park Service library system. On-site research is by appointment only, normally Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; at this writing the park's page states that appointments are suspended until regular operations resume, and it asks researchers to email NEPE_Library@nps.gov instead. The museum curator can be reached at (208) 843-7040. These are park and tribal-history records rather than vital records, so genealogists should pair a visit with the sources in our guide to free family-history research.
Planning Your Visit
The Spalding Visitor Center is at 39063 US Highway 95, Lapwai, ID 83540, ten miles east of Lewiston and three miles north of the town of Lapwai; phone (208) 843-7009. There is no entrance fee. Visitor center hours change by season and are posted on the park website, as is a calendar of ranger programs; in summer a tipi is set up on the grounds, and a Junior Ranger program is available for children. Big Hole National Battlefield near Wisdom, Montana, and Bear Paw Battlefield near Chinook, Montana, are each a long drive from Spalding and worth planning as separate trips. For hours, maps, and alerts, see nps.gov/nepe. Elsewhere in the state, the Idaho State Historical Society in Boise is also profiled on this site.
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