Migration and Diaspora

Migration Path & Settlement Area of the Old Cordilleran Culture - Photo Source: www.ancestral.org

The ancestry of the Nez Perce stretch back thousands of years. Experts believe that they are the descendants of the Old Cordilleran Culture, also known as the Cascade Phase, which dates back to 6,000 – 4,000 B.C.

Humans have lived in the Columbia Plateau region dating back to 30,000 B.C. The first documented group of humans living there is called the Clovis Culture. They lived from 10,000 B.C. to 9.000 BC. The Clovis Culture is famous for their fluted point spearheads, which are highly collectable and sell for great sums of money. They were a nomadic culture that shared the land with animals such as wooly bison, ground sloths and camels. They hunted mastodon and mammoth avidly. So much were they hunted that they eventually went extinct.

The next phase of humans are called the Windust Phase and they lived from 9,000 B.C. to 6,000 B.C. These early humans were semi-nomadic. Some of them were extensively migratory, while others began living in stone shelters and open camps. They hunted elk, deer and other small animals. It is even during this time that salmon fishing begins. Evidence shows that the first humans that fished for salmon did so around 6,500 B.C. near the Columbia River.

The Windust Phase eventually ended and gave birth to the Cascade Phase, or the Old Cordilleran Culture. The Old Cordilleran Culture is thought to have originated in Alaska and migrated south in the present day Northeast United States. They went as far south as California and as far east as Idaho. These humans were the first to settle in the land that will eventually be that of the Nez Perce tribe. They used a leaf-shaped spear point for hunting and other uses. Their spears were very similar to the spears used during the Windust Phase, but those of the Old Cordilleran Culture began sharpening a side for food processing uses. Humans of this phase also fished and hunted, mostly for deer and bison. They also started harvesting berries, roots and other plants to eat. They spoke a Macro-Penutian language and created the oldest known examples of art in the Northeast Pacific. This abstract petroglyph dates back to 4,800 B.C.

Eventually, the Nez Perce culture emerged. By that time this group of humans were already inhabiting a 17 million acres of land that covers four states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

Spearheads from the Cascade Phase - www.lithiccastinglab.com