Prior to first contact with European colonial people the Nimíipuu were economically and culturally influential in trade and war, interacting with other indigenous nations in a vast network from the western shores of Oregon and Washington, the high plains of Montana, and the northern Great Basin in southern Idaho and northern Nevada.

The Tribe owns and operates two casinos along the Clearwater River (in Kamiah and east of Lewiston),[20][21] health clinics, a police force and court, community centers, salmon fisheries, radio station, and other institutions that promote economic and cultural self-determination.

[23] Nez Percé is an exonym given by French Canadian fur traders who visited the area regularly in the late 18th century, meaning literally "pierced nose".

The interpreters Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau of the Lewis and Clark Expedition mistakenly identified this people as the Nez Perce when the team encountered the tribe in 1805.

Writing in 1889, anthropologist Alice Fletcher, who the U.S. government had sent to Idaho to allot the Nez Perce Reservation, explained the mistaken naming.

The Nez Perce territory at the time of Lewis and Clark (1804–1806) was approximately 17,000,000 acres (69,000 km2) and covered parts of present-day Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho, in an area surrounding the Snake (Weyikespe), Grande Ronde River, Salmon (Naco’x kuus) ("Chinook salmon Water") and the Clearwater (Koos-Kai-Kai) ("Clear Water") rivers.

The tribal area extended from the Bitterroots in the east (the door to the Northwestern Plains of Montana) to the Blue Mountains in the west between latitudes 45°N and 47°N.

"River People"), to the northwest lived the Palus (Pelúucpuu/Peluutspu - "People of Pa-luš-sa/Palus [village]") and to the west the Cayuse (Lik-si-yu) (Weyíiletpuu – "Ryegrass People"), west bound there were found the Umatilla (Imatalamłáma) (Hiyówatalampoo/Hiyuwatalampo), Walla Walla, Wasco (Wecq’úupuu) and Sk'in (Tike’éspel’uu) and northwest of the latter various Yakama bands (Lexéyuu), to the south lived the Snake Indians (various Northern Paiute (Numu) bands (Hey’ǘuxcpel’uu) in the southwest and Bannock (Nimi Pan a'kwati)-Northern Shoshone (Newe) bands[33] (Tiwélqe/Tewelk'a, later Sosona') in the southeast), to the east lived the Lemhi Shoshone (Lémhaay), north of them the Bitterroot Salish / Flathead (Seliš) (Séelix/Se'lix), further east and northeast on the Northern Plains were the Crow (Apsáalooke) (’Isúuxe/Isuuxh'e - "Crow People") and two powerful alliances – the Iron Confederacy (Nehiyaw-Pwat) (named after the dominating Plains and Woods Cree (Paskwāwiyiniwak and Sakāwithiniwak) and Assiniboine (Nakoda) (Wihnen’íipel’uu), an alliance of northern plains Native American nations based around the fur trade, and later included the Stoney (Nakoda), Western Saulteaux / Plains Ojibwe (Bungi or Nakawē) (Sat'sashipunu/Sat'sashipuun - "Porcupine People" or "Porcupine Eater"), and Métis) and the Blackfoot Confederacy (Niitsitapi or Siksikaitsitapi) (’Isq’óyxnix/Issq-oykinix - "Blackfooted People") (composed of three Blackfoot speaking peoples – the Piegan or Peigan (Piikáni), the Kainai or Bloods (Káínaa), and the Siksika or Blackfoot (Siksikáwa), later joined by the unrelated Sarcee (Tsuu T'ina) and (for a time) by Gros Ventre or Atsina (A'aninin) (H'elutiin)).

[40] Prior to contact with Europeans, the Nez Perce's traditional hunting and fishing areas spanned from the Cascade Range in the west to the Bitterroot Mountains in the east.

Fishing took place throughout the summer and fall, first on the lower streams and then on the higher tributaries, and catches also included salmon, sturgeon, whitefish, suckers, and varieties of trout.

Today Nez Perce fishers participate in tribal fisheries in the mainstream Columbia River between Bonneville and McNary dams.

[42] Aside from fish and game, Plant foods provided over half of the dietary calories, with winter survival depending largely on dried roots, especially Kouse, or "qáamsit" (when fresh) and "qáaws" (when peeled and dried) (Lomatium especially Lomatium cous), and Camas, or "qém'es" (Nez Perce: "sweet") (Camassia quamash), the first being roasted in pits, while the other was ground in mortars and molded into cakes for future use, both plants had been traditionally an important food and trade item.

[42] Favorite fruits dried for winter were serviceberries or "kel" (Amelanchier alnifolia or Saskatoon berry), black huckleberries or "cemi'tk" (Vaccinium membranaceum), red elderberries or "mi'ttip" (Sambucus racemosa var.

Nez Perce textiles were made primarily from dogbane or "qeemu" (Apocynum cannabinum or Indian hemp), tules or "to'ko" (Schoenoplectus acutus var.

The most important industrial woods were redcedar, ponderosa pine or "la'qa" (Pinus ponderosa), Douglas fir or "pa'ps" (Pseudotsuga menziesii), sandbar willow or "tax's" (Salix exigua), and hard woods such as Pacific yew or "ta'mqay" (Taxus brevifolia) and syringa or "sise'qiy" (Philadelphus lewisii or Indian arrowwood).

The Nez Perce believed in spirits called weyekins (Wie-a-kins) which would, they thought, offer a link to the invisible world of spiritual power".

Helen Hunt Jackson, author of "A Century of Dishonor", written in 1881 refers to the Nez Perce as "the richest, noblest, and most gentle" of Indian peoples as well as the most industrious.

While he, Meriwether Lewis and their men were crossing the Bitterroot Mountains, they ran low of food, and Clark took six hunters and hurried ahead to hunt.

On September 20, 1805, near the western end of the Lolo Trail, he found a small camp at the edge of the camas-digging ground, which is now called Weippe Prairie.

Preparing to make the remainder of their journey to the Pacific by boats on rivers, they entrusted the keeping of their horses until they returned to "2 brothers and one son of one of the Chiefs."

[49] Under pressure from the European Americans, in the late 19th century the Nez Perce split into two groups: one side accepted the coerced relocation to a reservation and the other refused to give up their fertile land in Washington and Oregon.

The flight of the non-treaty Nez Perce began on June 15, 1877, with Chief Joseph, Looking Glass, White Bird, Ollokot, Lean Elk (Poker Joe) and Toohoolhoolzote leading 750 men, women and children in an attempt to reach a peaceful sanctuary.

The Nez Perce were pursued by over 2,000 soldiers of the U.S. Army on an epic flight to freedom of more than 1,170 miles (1,880 km) across four states and multiple mountain ranges.

[50] A majority of the surviving Nez Perce were finally forced to surrender on October 5, 1877, after the Battle of the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana, 40 miles (64 km) from the Canada–US border.

"[52] Chief Joseph went to Washington, D.C., in January 1879 to meet with the President and Congress, after which his account was published in the North American Review.

[54] The annual Cypress Hills ride in June commemorates the Nez Perce people's attempt to escape to Canada.

Social disruption due to reservation life and assimilationist pressures by Americans and the government resulted in the destruction of their horse culture in the 19th century.

The 20th-century breeding program was financed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Nez Perce tribe, and the nonprofit called the First Nations Development Institute.

The current tribal lands consist of a reservation in North Central Idaho at 46°18′N 116°24′W / 46.300°N 116.400°W / 46.300; -116.400, primarily in the Camas Prairie region south of the Clearwater River, in parts of four counties.

The Triassic gastropod Cryptaulax nezperceorum Nützel & Erwin, 2004, found on the land of the Nez Percé tribe, has been named in their honour.