The Nez Perce War

The Nez Perce War

The Nez Perce War
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 7 to 9
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.13

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		longtime, skirmish, federal, military, abandon, treaty, rugged, territorial, reservation, refused, universal, surrender, government, mostly, death, profit
	content words:		Nez Perce, Clark Expedition, Chief Joseph, Even General William T., Nelson Miles

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The Nez Perce War
By Mary Lynn Bushong

¹     The Nez Perce were a mostly peaceful people who welcomed the Lewis and Clark Expedition team in 1805. They supplied the team with the materials to continue west.

²     The Nez Perce were longtime horse lovers and prided themselves in breeding the best, most beautiful horses they could including the Appaloosa breed.

³     The lands of this people covered a wide area—from present day Oregon and Washington into Idaho. In 1855, Chief Joseph the Elder helped set up a reservation for his people with the territorial governor. The chief actively wanted peace with the Americans, but he also wanted to protect the interests of his own people.

⁴     A few years later, a gold rush occurred on Nez Perce land. Instead of allowing the native people to profit by this, the federal government took away all the reservation lands, including the part with the gold, except a remaining tenth in Idaho.

⁵     This angered Chief Joseph the Elder to the point where he broke all friendly ties with the government. He refused to sign the new treaty allowing this to happen and would not move his people.

Paragraphs 6 to 14:
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