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Lewis and Clark
(1804-1806)
 The Nez Perce People

The Nez Perce People
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.87

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    breechcloth, buckskin, cornhusk, gatherers, horsemeat, know-how, reedy, semi-underground, tipi, tribal, tule, travelers, leadership, various, northeast, bitterroot
     content words:    Nez Perce, Clark Expedition, Some Nez Perce, Upper Clearwater Nimi'ipu, Upper Clearwater River

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The Nez Perce People
By Toni Lee Robinson 		  
1     The Nez Perce tribe was important to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The tired travelers had had little food for days when they staggered out of the mountains onto the Weippe (WEE-yipe) Prairie. Some Nez Perce boys brought the explorers to their village. The men were welcomed and given salmon and camas root to eat.
 
2     The meeting of Lewis and Clark and the Nez Perce might have turned out differently. Tribal stories tell of a meeting of Nez Perce men outside the tipi (TEE-pee) of an old woman named Watkuweis (WATT-coo-wees). As the Nez Perce men talked outside her tipi, she heard them planning to kill the white men.
 
3     As a girl, Watkuweis had been kidnapped. Her native captors had traded her to white men who treated her kindly and helped her get back home. These bearded explorers looked to her like the same kind of people who had helped her years before. When she heard the Nez Perce men, Watkuweis was alarmed. She shouted with all her strength. " They are So-yap-pos!" she said. "Good men! Men like these were good to me. Do them no harm!" The men listened to her words. The Nez Perce became friends of the white men.

Paragraphs 4 to 10:
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