Life of the nez perce

Indigenous peoples of North America

For other uses, see Nez Perce.

Ethnic group

The Nez Perce (; autonym in Nez Perce language: nimíipuu, meaning "we, the people")^[2] are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who still live on a fraction of the lands on the southeastern Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest.

This region has been occupied for at least 11,500 years.^[3]

Members of the Sahaptin language group,^[4] the Nimíipuu were the dominant people of the Columbia Plateau for much of that time,^[5] especially after acquiring the horses that led them to breed the Appaloosa horse in the 18th century.

Prior to first contact with European colonial people the Nimíipuu were economically and culturally influential in trade and war, interacting with other indigenous nations in a vast network from the western shores of Oregon and Washington, the high plains of Montana, and the northern Great Basin in southern Idaho and nor