The NWC employees erected an enclosure to protect the work site. Thus they resolved to keep us in their power, and withhold supplies until their conditions were granted." They affixed an exorbitant price of their own to every article of trade, and they insulted any of the hands whom they met alone. They insisted on our paying for the timber we were collecting. "Soon after our landing the tribes began to muster rapidly the multitudes which surrounded us became immense, and their movements alarming. Relations with the Nez Perces quickly deteriorated as construction continued, as Ross recalled. The surrounding area lacked a forest, so workers had to cut timber 100 miles away and send it down river to the planned fort site. The company officials secured daily provisions for the laborers by trading with visiting Nez Perce. North West Company managers during an annual meeting in Fort William, gave instructions for a fort to be created near the mouth of the Walla Walla River, a few miles south of the confluence of the Snake and the Columbia.īegun in July 1818 under the direction of traders Donald MacKenzie and Alexander Ross, the fort was constructed by 95 NWC employees. He erected a pole and a notice claiming the country for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site. Modern political boundaries shown.ĭuring David Thompson's 1811 voyage down the Columbia River, he camped at the confluence with the Snake River on July 9, 1811.
Fort Nez Perces was an important stop on the York Factory Express trade route, 1820s to 1840s.
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