Nearly 150 years after their ancestors were driven out of their Wallowa Valley homeland in Oregon, more than 150 Nez Perce (Niimiipuu) let their ancestors "feel our moccasins on the ground again." Last year, they reclaimed part of the 7.5 million-acre homeland from which they were forced in 1877, buying a 148-acre property known as Am'saxpa, or Place of Boulders, that had been operated as a ranch for more than 100 years. The pandemic delayed their blessing of the land, which includes the river frontage where the Nez Perce caught sockeye salmon and the ridge where Chief Joseph once held council. Refusing to be moved to Idaho, Chief Joseph led 700 people more than 1,100 miles, pursued by 5,000 US troops, before surrendering just short of the Canadian border.

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