Encounters With the People : Written and Oral Accounts of Nez Perce Life to 1858. This item is unavailable.Encounters With the People : Written and Oral Accounts of Nez Perce Life to 1858

Organized both chronologically and thematically, Encounters with the People is an edited, annotated compilation of unique primary sources related to Nez Perce history--Native American oral histories, diary excerpts, military reports, maps, and more. Generous elders shared their collective memory of carefully guarded stories passed down through multiple generations. One described the level of attentiveness required to preserve their oral history as "so still to listen that you could hear a bird take a drink of water on the other side of the mountain." The work begins with early Nimiipuu/Euro-American contact and extends to the period immediately after the Treaty of 1855 held at Walla Walla.

The editors scoured archives, federal document repositories, and state and local historical museums in search of little-known documents related to regional cultural and environmental history. Most of the selected material is published for the first time or is found only in obscure sources. Complete documents are included wherever possible, and any excisions carefully noted. Part of the Voices from Nez Perce Country series, Encounters with the People includes a thorough, up-to-date, annotated bibliography. Those interested in the Nez Perce, Native American Studies, Lewis and Clark, early missionary work, and Inland Northwest settlement will find it an essential reference work.

Recipient of a 2016 CHOICE Academic Book of the Year, the 2016 Western History Association Dwight L. Smith Award, and a 2015 Idaho Book Award Honorable Mention, from the Idaho Library Association.

Co-editor Dennis Baird is a professor emeritus at the University of Idaho, and is the author or editor of eight books.

Diane Mallickan is Nez Perce and Shoshone Paiute. Following studies at the University of Idaho, she became a park ranger and has served for more than two decades. She wrote a research paper on Starr Maxwell which was used in the University of Idaho Library reprint of Memorial of the Nez Perce Indians Residing in the State of Idaho to the Congress of the United States as well as Snake River Basin Adjudication testimonies.

William R. Swagerty is the director of the John Muir Center at University of the Pacific and a contributor to the Smithsonian's Handbook of North American Indians.