Nez Perce

Topic of Discussion: The Alberta Tar Sands; the Heavy Haul and Using the Columbia River as a Means to Transport Coal and Oil Drilling Equipment.

BY WINONA LADUKE, Indian Country Today Media Network (March 24, 2011).

When 750 Nez Perce, accompanied by 1,000 horses, fled the U.S. Cavalry on a 1,200-mile route through the mountains, valleys and rivers of Washington, Idaho and Montana in 1877, their path took them past the Heart of the Monster, from whence the Nez Perce, or Nimiipuu people, originated, and through their precious Bitterroot Mountains. Their route was treacherous but their determination to survive was unshakable.

Some 140 years later, the black heart of industrial society has come to torment the Nimiipuu, using that same route. Read more...

BY WINONA LADUKE & RENEE HOLT, Ta'c Titooqan (March 2011), the Nez Perce Tribal newspaper.

When over 750 Nez Perce, or Nimiipuu people, accompanied by 1,000 horses fled the Cavalry on a 1,600 mile route through the mountains, valleys and rivers of Oregon, Idaho and Montana in l877, the route was treacherous and the determination to survive as a people deep. During the War of 1877, their journey moved beyond the Heart of the Monster, from whence the Nimiipuu were created, passed the precious and historical trade route of Indigenous people that predates Lewis & Clark through the Bitterroot Mountains. It is some l40 years later and a new industrial road seeks to follow a similar route, pushing through the heart of Nez Perce homelands into the darkest chapter of American oil expansion. Read more...