Nez Perce Territory

Conservation Ethics

Nez Perce Department of Natural Resources

Nez Perce Perspectives

Nez Perce Territory

The original Nez Perce territory covered approximately 17 million acres across the modern states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. The 1855 Treaty reduced this to 7.5 million acres, and the gold rush of the 1860s, in turn, reduced that amount to a mere 750,000 acres.

The division of the reservation into individual homesteads, prompted by the 1887 Dawes Severalty Act, led to further losses. At its lowest point, the tribe controlled only 250,000 acres, or 1/68th of their traditional territory. Currently, the tribe’s holdings amount to some 770,000 acres.

Territory of the Nez Perce Tribe. Natural Resource Management GIS Program, c. 2000.