Land of the Nez Perce
For generations, the Nez Perce had winter camps around the mouth of Asotin
Creek, enjoying weather that is milder than the surrounding upper elevations.
It was here that Apash Wyakaikt was visited Lewis and Clark in 1805. His
grandson, Chief Looking Glass or Allalimya Takanin, as he is known in Nez Perce,
was born around 1832.
Chief Looking Glass was head of the last Asotin band before the Nez Perce
war of 1877. He bitterly resented the white man's encroachments on his
ancestral lands, however, he counseled against going to war when the Nez Perce
were forced onto the greatly reduced reservation. Later, Looking Glass
became the war chief who, along with Chief Joseph, directed the 1877 Nez Perce
retreat from eastern Oregon into Montana and on toward the Canadian border.
He died just short of reaching Canada, the victim of a Sioux scout's bullet.
The Nez Perce were fond of their beautiful horses and developed the
Appaloosa breed. Captain Meriwether Lewis noted that the Nez Perce had the
larges horse herd on the Continent. The horse was an important form of
transportation to the Nez Perce people, allowing them to journey over the
Bitterroots to hunt buffalo and travel west to trade with other tribes along the
Columbia River. But, horses could also be used for fun. across the
river on the flat ground that is now Hells Gate State Park, young Nez Perce
would race their horses to prove who was the most fleet.
The Snake River near present-day Asotin was a place where the Nez Perce
would go to collect eels. The Nez Perce have a word "Hesu'al" meaning a
time of the return of the hesu, or eels, to a tributary. The called this
area Hesution or Hasotain, meaning "eel creek." Hasotain was modified over
time to Asotin, the present-day name of the lovely town and county. ~ text
of marker