Weippe Prairie

(Idaho)

 

In September of 1805, Captain Clark came off the Lolo Trail onto a high prairie known as Weippe Prairie. He found Nez Perce Indians digging camas roots. They willingly shared with the explorers the cooked camas roots, salmon, a little bison meat, and some dried berries.

  

 

Lewis joined Clark a couple days later and the eating continued. Many men, including Lewis and Clark, became ill from the abrupt change in diet or from bacteria on the salmon. Most were violently sick for over a week -- but after a few days, they moved across the prairie to a new location.

 

The entire Corps of Discovery could easily have been killed by the Indians at this location, but a woman named Watkuweis ("returned from a far country") convinced the Indians to let the explorers live. She had been captured by Blackfeet Indians a few years earlier, then bought by a white trader. She lived with him and other traders for a while, and was better treated by them than the Indians, so spoke in favor of Lewis and Clark.

 

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