Indians have a message: “We intend to be here forever”

By DAVID HORSEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL CARTOONIST

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth part of a seven-part series.

DISPATCH FROM KAMIAH, NEZ PERCE RESERVATION, Sept. 22 — Few people can tell you where their world began, but the Ni-Mii-Puu can.

A big mound rises on a grassy slope above this Idaho town. Myth says the mound covers the buried heart of a great monster that gobbled up all of the animals in the world. Coyotes killed the monster, cut up his heart and, from the blood, created the Ni-Mii-Puu, better known as the Nez Perce tribe.

The Heart of the Monster site lies just across U.S. 12 from the Lewis and Clark Resort, an RV park with log cabins set back in the trees and a motel office, gift shop and restaurant built to resemble a stockade. The restaurant is the Sacajewea Café. The Lewis and Clark theme is ubiquitous in this part of the country.

This morning, I check out of the resort, drive down the hill and cross the bridge over the Clearwater River. A little farther downstream is a sprawling sawmill built on the place where Lewis and Clark camped out for several weeks in the spring of 1806 on their return trip to the United States. Mountain passes were still blocked by snow, so the explorers had little choice but to stay here in what they called their Long Camp and enjoy the hospitality of the Nez Perce.

Now, as I drive into town, the Corps of Discovery II is situated at the city park. I toured this traveling exhibit yesterday and heard yet again about the meetings between Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery and the native tribes who helped them on their trek to the ocean. Today, I have my own meeting with the Indians. [...read more...]