moonei TRIBES OF THE COLUMBIA 74f) 



formerly occupied a large territory in eastern Washington and Oregon 

 and central Idaho, bounded on the east by the main divide of the 

 Bitterroot mountains, and including lower Grande Ronde and Salmon 

 rivers, with a large part of the Snake and all of the Clearwater. The 

 Wallowa valley, the disputed title to which led to the Nez Perce war, 

 lies on a branch of the Grande Ronde, in Oregon. They had the 

 Salishan tribes to the northeast, the Shoshonean tribes to the south, 

 and the Cayuse, Wallawalla, and 1'iilus, with all of whom they are 

 much intermarried, on the west and northwest. Almost all authorities 

 give them a high character for bravery, intelligence, and honorable 

 conduct traits which were strikingly displayed in the Nez Perce war. 

 Lewis and Clark traversed their country in 1805, and speak of them 

 and some connected tribes under the name of Chopunnish, distinguished 

 as follows: Chopunnish nation (about the present Lapwai reservation), 

 Pelloatpallah band (the Palus), Kimooenim band (on Snake river, 

 between the Salmon and the Clearwater), Yeletpo band (the Cayuse), 

 Willewah band (in Wallowa valley, afterward Joseph's band), Soyeu- 

 nom band (on the north side of the upper Clearwater, in Idaho; these 

 were really a part of the Palus— the proper form is Ta'tqu'nma, whence 

 Thatuna hills, referring to "a fawn" in the Palus language, and was 

 the name applied to their kamas ground about Camass creek), Chopun- 

 nish of Lewis river (on Snake river, below the Clearwater). In response 

 to a request from the Xez Perces, who sent a delegation all the way to 

 Saint Louis for that purpose in 1832, the first Protestant mission was 

 established among them at Lapwai, Idaho, in 1837. Soon afterward 

 they entered into relations with the government, and made their first 

 treaty with the United States in 1855. By this treaty they ceded the 

 greater portion of their territory, and were confirmed in the possession 

 of a reservation including Wallowa valley. On the discovery of gold in 

 the country, however, the miners rushed in, and in consequence a new 

 treaty was made in 1803, by which they gave up all but the present 

 Lapwai reservation in Idaho. Joseph, who occupied Wallowa valley 

 with his band, refused to recognize this treaty or remove to Lapwai. 

 This refusal finally led to the Nez Perce war in 1877, as already related. 

 The main body of the tribe took no part in the war. After the surren- 

 der of Joseph his band was removed to Indian Territory, where the 

 mortality among them was so great that in 1881 they were returned to 

 the northwest. For several reasons, however, it was deemed unadvis- 

 able to settle them in the neighborhood of their old home, and a place 

 was finally found for them in 18S7 on Colville reservation in northern 

 Washington. In 1S9L' there were 1,828 on Lapwai reservation and 138 

 on Colville reservation, a total populatiou of 1,960. 



