Near Canoe Camp we visited the Nez Perce Visitor Center where Aron learned to throw the Atl-Atl, a wooden spear and a wooden stick with a peg that fits into the bottom of the spear. You put your finger and thumb into two rawhide loops to hold the spear onto the throwing stick, and throw the spear with a flick of your wrist. Aron was better than any of the other tourists in the center. We also watched a movie about the Nez Perce. Their real name is Ne-Mee-Poo, translated as “The People,” or another name that translates to “The Ones Who Walked From The Mountains.” The name Nez Perce was given to them by French trappers by mistake, since pierced noses were not at all a normal part of their decoration.

Their story is a particularly sad and awful one in US history. The Ne-Mee-Poo were good to Lewis and Clark and held fast to their treaties with the US, but the US wanted their land, particularly when the settlers came out, and, soon after, the gold rush miners. So their traditional lands, which originally encompassed a third of Washington, a third of Oregon, and big chunks of Idaho and Montana, were taken away from them. They were put in ever-diminishing reservations, and Sitting Bull, their chief, was killed along with his son, Crow. The biggest bad guy in this shameful episode was US President Garfield, but there was plenty of shame for everyone.