Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Connecting curious minds with uncommon, undeniably Northwest reads

Encounters with the People

Written and Oral Accounts of Nez Perce Life to 1858

Compiled and edited by Dennis Baird, Diane Mallickan, and William R. Swagerty

$34.95$50.00

Organized both chronologically and thematically, Encounters with the People is an edited, annotated compilation of unique primary sources related to Nez Perce history— Native American oral histories, diary excerpts, military reports, maps, and more.

2016 CHOICE Academic Book of the Year
2016 Western History Association Dwight L. Smith Award
2015 Idaho Book Award Honorable Mention, Idaho Library Association

Clear

Gift Wrap Design

Gift wrap ($5.00)

Description

Organized both chronologically and thematically, Encounters with the People is an edited, annotated compilation of unique primary sources related to Nez Perce history—Native American oral histories, diary excerpts, military reports, maps, and more. Generous elders shared their collective memory of carefully-guarded stories passed down through multiple generations. One described the level of attentiveness required to preserve their oral history as “so still to listen that you could hear a bird take a drink of water on the other side of the mountain.” The work begins with early Nimiipuu/Euro-American contact and extends to the period immediately after the Treaty of 1855 held at Walla Walla.

The editors scoured archives, federal document repositories, and state and local historical museums in search of little-known documents related to regional cultural and environmental history. Most of the selected material is published for the first time or is found only in obscure sources. Complete documents are included wherever possible, and any excisions carefully noted. Part of the Voices from Nez Perce Country series, Encounters with the People includes a thorough, up-to-date, annotated bibliography. Those interested in the Nez Perce, Native American Studies, Lewis and Clark, early missionary work, and Inland Northwest settlement will find it an essential reference work.

Illustrations / map / notes / bibliographic essay / index / 544 pages (2015)

Recognition

2016 CHOICE Academic Book of the Year
2016 Western History Association Dwight L. Smith Award
2015 Idaho Book Award Honorable Mention, Idaho Library Association

“Especially valuable for its numerous direct, first-hand accounts of participants in Nez Perce affairs since Lewis and Clark until 1858.”—Deward E. Walker, Jr., Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado at Boulder

This hefty volume, which saves researchers the need to travel to archives and libraries around the country…fills a niche in the literature on Nez Perce history and culture, and sets a high bar for other compilations of tribe-specific primary source documents.  Indispensable for all libraries with programs in history, ethnohistory, Western Americana, and Native studies.—CHOICE

“To cut to the chase, this is an exceptionally valuable contribution to the study of the Nez Perce people and their history.  It is the product of prodigious and painstaking effort.”—Elliott West, University of Arkansas Alumni Distinguished Professor of History and author of The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story

Additional information

Dimensions 11 x 8.5 in
Format

eBook, Hardbound