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Chiefs and Chief Traders: Indian Relations at Fort Nez PercÈs, 1818-1855 - Volume 1

By Theodore Stern 1993. 288 pages. Photographs. Maps. Index. Bibliography. ISBN 0-87071-368-X. Hardcover, $35.95. Volume II, Chiefs and Change in the Oregon Country. Table of Contents

A ground-breaking study of the relations between the fur traders of Fort Nez Perces and the Indians of the region, primarily Cayuse, Wallawalla, Umatilla, and Nez Perce. Existing literature on this region has focused on the white explorers, the fur traders, and the settlers. Chiefs and Chief Traders offers a new perspective, exploring both white and Indian cultures and their interactions.

Chiefs and Chief Traders represents the culmination of 25 years of research, utilizing an extensive variety of primary sources--some used here for the first time--as well as oral interviews conducted in the course of ethnographic research on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Stern weaves together anthropology and history in a way that few are qualified to do. He brings new information to the story of the relations between Indians and whites in the Pacific Northwest.

Chiefs and Chief Traders was a finalist for the 1995 Oregon Book Awards.

"I take off my hat to Dr. Stern in awe of his scholarly achievements here."

--Eugene Hunn, University of Washington,
author of Nch'i-Wana

"A readable and highly useful ethnohistorical assessment of eastern Plateau Indians and the impact of the fur trade . . . a contribution to learning."

--Stephen Dow Beckham, Lewis & Clark College,
author of Requiem for a People

"Theodore Stern has done what many historians have long thought undoable, given the paucity of documentary sources for the fur trade of the southern Columbia River area . . . he has provided meticulous reconstruction of personalities and events at Fort Nez Perces, a pivotal strategic post of the Pacific Northwest."

--Pacific Historical Review

About The Author

Theodore Stern is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Oregon. In addition to the two books featured here, he is the author of The Klamath Tribe: A People and Their Reservation.

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