9781422286166

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Northwest: Idaho, Oregon, Washington

A Nez Perce man maneuvers a dugout canoe to the banks of a river in Idaho, circa 1900. The Nez Perce were one of several tribes that lived in this region before the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century.

Purchase territory. Still, it was crossed in 1805 by an American expedition charged with exploring the Louisiana Purchase territory and finding a land route to the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark expedition—also known as the Corps of Discovery—entered Idaho through the Lemhi Pass, in present-day Lemhi County. The explorers eventually managed to cross Idaho’s Bitterroot Mountains on their way to the Pacific coast. The United States claimed the Pacific Northwest region. The Oregon

13,000 BCE . Nearby caves, while not fully excavated, point to a similarly long human presence in the region. By 1800 CE , various Indian peoples lived in the area of present-day Idaho. They included the Shoshone, Bannock, Nez Perce, Coeur d’Alene, and Kalispel. In 1803, the United States bought from France a huge piece of territory in the center of North America. Called the Louisiana Purchase, it more than doubled the size of the country. Idaho lay just west of the Louisiana