This traditional root-gathering place for the Nez Perce was where Lewis and Clark first met the Nez Perce on September 20, 1805.
The quiet and remote Weippe Prairie seems like the sort of place time passes by without much notice, but in 1803 it was the setting for events that changed the course of American history and lives of its peoples.
Weippe is a broad meadow sandwiched between the thickly forested mountains of the Clearwater country of northern Idaho. It is populated with small farms and lumber mills now, but during the 19th century it was a traditional camas-gathering site for the Nez Perce Indians, who congregated here in large numbers in the early summer to dig the sweet and nutritious bulbs of the blue camas flower.
Captain William Clark of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition set out from what's now known as Sinque Hole Camp on the west side of Lolo Pass with a party of hunters on the morning of September 18, 1805 to find provisions for the 34-member "Corps of Discovery."
Winter was descending early in the mountains, dropping six inches of snow on the camp, and food supplies were critically low. The party had killed and eaten the last of its horses and all around them was a seemingly endless wilderness of heavily forested ridges.
"I proceeded on in advance with six hunters to try and find deer or something to kill and send back to the party," Clark wrote in his journal. "The want of provisions, together with the difficulty of passing the mountains, dampened the spirits of the party, which induced us to resort to some plan of reviving their spirits."
The survival of the Corps, the success of its mission, and the future of the United States' presence in its newly purchased western frontier all hung in the balance. Not only was frostbite and starvation a real possibility, but the small party of explorers was probably at risk of being massacred.
"Proceeded on through a beautiful country for three miles to a small plain in which I found many Indian lodges," wrote Clark in his journal entry for September 20. "At the distance of one mile from the lodges I met three Indian boys. When they saw me, they ran and hid themselves in the grass."
The place Clark stumbled onto is known as the Weippe Prairie and the Indians he found living there were Nez Perce. The explorers were sorely in need and finding friendly Indians willing to share their campsite, food and knowledge of the terrain saved the expedition, but it might well have been different...
"According to Nez Perce legends the Nez Perce considered massacring the party of Clark at Weippe but were persuaded by one of their women named Wat-ku-ese, who had been befriended by white people when a captive among Indians to the east, to treat them kindly," writes historian Ralph Space in The Lolo Trail.
"Captain Clark knew of no such incident, but he did say that they met an Indian woman who had been as far east as the Mandan village. This statement strongly supports the Indian story."
Ironically, the success of the Lewis and Clark mission contributed to the demise of the Nez Perce way of life by encouraging settlement of the frontier by white people. The last time the Nez Perce visited the Weippe Prairie as a free-roaming tribe was 72 years later as they were being chased by the U.S. Cavalry during the months-long Nez Perce War that ultimately led to their exile.
