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 | | Monday November 23, 2009 2:58 AM |
 | | From the Journals of Lewis & Clark in 1804-1805 | |
LEWIS and CLARK Meet Nez Percé Indians
from the journal of William Clark
October 10, 1805
The Indians Came down all the Cou[r]ses of this river on each side on horses to view us as we were decending.
The Cho-pun-nish or Pierced nose Indians are Stout likely men, handsom women, and verry dressey in their way, the dress of the men are a White Buffalow robe or Elk Skin dressed with Beeds which are generally white, Sea Shells & the Mother of Pirl hung to the[i]r hair & on a piece of otter skin about their necks hair Ceewed in two parsels hanging forward over their Sholders, feathers, and different Coloured Paints which they find in their Countrey Generally white, Green & light Blue. Some few were a Shirt of Dressed Skins and long legins & Mockersons Painted, which appear to be their winters dress, with a plat of twisted grass about their Necks.
The women dress in a Shirt of Ibex or Goat [bighorn] Skins which reach quite down to their anckles with a girdle, their heads are not ornemented. their Shirts are ornemented with quilled Brass, Small peces of Brass Cut into different forms, Beeds, Shells curious bones &c. The men expose those parts which are
generally kept from few [view] by other nations but the women are more perticular than any other nation which I have passed [in s[e]creting the parts]
Their amusements appear but few as their Situation requires the utmost exertion to pr[o]cure food they are generally employed in that pursute, all the Summer & fall fishing for the Salmon, the winter hunting the deer on Snow Shoes in the plains and takeing care of ther emence numbers of horses, & in the Spring cross the mountains to the Missouri to get Buffalow robes and meet &c. at which time they frequent[ly] meet with their enemies & lose their horses & maney of their people.
Their disorders are but few and those few of a s[c]rofelous nature. they make great use of Swetting. The hot and cold bathes, They are verry Selfish and Stingey of what they have to eate or ware, and they expect in return Something for everything give[n] as presents or the survices whic they doe let it be
however Small, and fail to make those returns on their part.
Bernard DeVoto, the editor of the journals, calls this last remark "unjust", considering the hospitality with which the Nez Percés had received them..." And on the way home the following year, both Lewis and Clark considered the Nez Percé the "most generous and most likable tribe they had met."]
But in early October of 1805, Lewis and Clark are coming out of the mountains and reach the area around Lewiston, Idaho. They are at the junction of the Clearwater and the Snake at the present site of Lewiston,Idaho.
Here they are met by a number of Nez Percé Indians. The entry above records his impressions of these Inland Native Americans.
NOTE - The spelling here is as it was written by Clark in his Journal. He was not a good speller.
selection from The Journals of Lewis and Clark,
edited by Bernard DeVoto, Boston 1953
Last Updated
December 22, 2004
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