Ethnohistorical Sources for the Nez Perce Indians. Part 2, Concluded

Abstract

The Nez Perc6 occupied an area presenting a diversity of subsistence items. Depending upon which part of the Nez Perce territory a band occupied, its members could focus their energies on salmon fishing, hunting large game or varying degrees of both. Underlying both of these specialties were the gathering activities of the women which at either extremity of the territory p:-ovided a staple diet of roots and fruits, the chief of which were camus and kous. The frequent mention of subsistence patterns in the literature is probably accounted for by the fact that ekeing out an existence was an ever present problem for the early explorers themselves, as well as for the natives. This was particularly true for an expeditionary force as large as the one under Lewis and Clark. Its members had to be more than casually interested in the techniques by which they could best support themselves in an alien country. In the area of hunting, the accounts most frequently given concern techniques for taking deer. Lewis and Clark note that while deer were hunted on foot in wooded country, the favorite method of the Nez Perce was to ride them down on horseback in open country.37 Ordway gives an interesting account of such a hunt on the Clearwater: