Indian Sacred Lands Program
The Wallowa Land Trust’s Indian Sacred Lands Program seeks to assist tribes in their efforts to protect selected lands of special significance to them.
The Wallowa Valley and surrounding lands were home to Wallowa Band Nez Perce for more than 12,000 years, and the Nez Perce relationship with this landscape is intimate. In some ways it’s difficult to imagine any part of the Wallowa that isn’t still Indian Country!
Their deep and historic affiliation with both lateral Moraines and the terminal Moraine, which cradle Wallowa Lake, is well-established. For the past several decades the Nez Perce have attempted to protect those lands near the ancient Indian cemetery and memorial site of Old Chief Joseph, where so much of their culture was established for so long. This is the same area (the old Marr Ranch, at the south end of the town of Joseph) where an R-V Park is currently proposed by developers.
These concerns extend back to the Treaty of 1855 and before. The same is true of other selected significant sites throughout the mountains, valleys and canyons, including traditional fishing areas, encampments, cemeteries and other special places.
The Nez Perce Tribe has worked cooperatively with Wallowa County officials in supporting land use planning and dam restoration efforts, and has lent their name and resources to a variety of important county projects. The Tribe hopes to re-establish sockeye salmon in Wallowa Lake as part of a valley-wide fisheries/economic restoration campaign, and has established a professional tribal fisheries presence throughout the county to help accomplish this goal.
The Trust is working to help the Nez Perce in the landbase aspects of their
work (cultural, fisheries or otherwise) by protecting some areas through
direct land trust acquisition, and also by facilitating acquisition of specific lands most important to the Nez Perce.
