Encounters with the People: Written and Oral Accounts of Nez Perce Life to 1858 eds. by Dennis Baird, Diane Mallickan, and William R. Swagerty (review)

Encounters with the People is a compilation of primary sources about the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people that range from Nimiipuu oral histories to written accounts of explorers, adventurers, missionaries, scientists, homesteaders, military personnel, and journalists, to the year 1848. The book is part of the three-volume series, Voices from Nez Perce Country. The editors scoured the country to find these sources, looking through major archives, small newspapers, and microfilm collections in university libraries.

Organized thematically and chronologically, the text is an outstanding source book and important contribution to environmental studies, cultural studies, history, oral history, and Native American studies. The editors provide a readable overview of landscape, politics, and biographical information within each chapter; this format puts an extraordinary array of primary sources and information at readers' fingertips. The content is dynamic; Nimiipuu oral histories are in dialogue with Euro-American sources. In one excerpt, Nimiipuu tribal member Harry Wheeler mentions Tee-mee-map, a gathering place for tribes to dig for camas and fish near Orofino, Idaho (67). Chillingly, that place is now under Dworshak Dam, a symbol of Cold War power. In important ways, the Nimiipuu oral narratives begin to correct a long history of Euro-American scholars writing about Native Americans while devaluing their oral traditions.

The tension between traditional history and Native American oral stories has been discussed before, but never with so much elegance as in this volume. Anthropologist and Secwepemc tribal member Ronald Eric Ignace, for instance, documents striking parallels between oral history and archaeology, suggesting that "our ancient oral histories should not be shrugged off, that they do indeed provide information that at times corroborates the archaeological, paleo-environmental, linguistic and geological record" (Our Oral Histories Are Our Iron Pasts: Secwepemc Stories and Historical Consciousness [PhD Thesis, Simon Fraser University, 2008], 54-55). Further, Cree scholar Neal McLeod points out that most published history about the Cree people is written by non-Cree scholars. "Sometimes," McLeod says, "so-called experts really have no appreciation for tribal knowledge" ("Cree Narrative Memory," Oral History Forum/D'Histoire Orale 19-20 [1999-2000], 43).

Encounters with the People plunges into this debate with tribal elder Diane Mallickan's illuminating forward explaining how oral tradition has been a staple for Native Americans and yet is "often misunderstood by Euro-Americans" who trivialize these forms as nonscientific (xi). Indeed, Mallickan's bold essay sets the tone for the entire volume. Specifically, she remembers how, as a child, the only books Nez Perce children read were by white men. She also remembers thinking these books were full of lies and that the oral histories of her people were the real sources of truth.

The editors contextualize the oral sources, explaining why excerpts were chosen and why they are important, such as the series of oral testimonies the Nimiipuu attorney Starr J. Maxwell recorded in 1911: these were originally used to influence government policy. Beyond that, the testimonies offer nuanced accounts of well-known events. A communal document that Many Wounds mostly wrote tells about an encounter with Lewis and Clark and Sacajawea: "Sacajawea puts her baby on back and goes with Nez Perce womans and digs roots, camas, and help with cooking she not lazy" (49). He then tells how one Nez Perce man was lovesick for Sacajawea and wanted her to stay, but she refused. The account is striking for how much agency Sacajawea has within the Nez Perce camp. Other oral histories include intricate descriptions of Chinook salmon fishing, details of Indian worship, and important geographical knowledge. Most interesting are the surprising, incongruous details: "Long ago Nez Perces used to come to Kamiah or Clearwater every year to trade for camas and kouse roots. Nearly all of them had blond hair and eyes of lighter color than black" (69).

Some...