Fort Wallah-Wallah is surrounded by the tribe of the same name, as well as by the Skynses and the Nez Perces; who bring to it the furs and peltries collected in their hunting expeditions.  The Wallah-Wallahs are a degenerate, worn-out tribe.  The Nez Perces are the most numerous and tractable of the three tribes just mentioned.  Mr. Pambrune informed Captain Bonneville that he had been at some pains to introduce the Christian religion, in the Roman Catholic form, among them, where it had evidently taken root; but had become altered and modified, to suit their peculiar habits of thought, and motives of action; retaining, however, the principal points of faith, and its entire precepts of morality.  The same gentleman had given them a code of laws, to which they conformed with scrupulous fidelity.  Polygamy, which once prevailed among them to a great extent, was now rarely indulged.  All the crimes denounced by the Christian faith met with severe punishment among them.  Even theft, so venial a crime among the Indians, had recently been punished with hanging, by sentence of a chief.

There certainly appears to be a peculiar susceptibility of moral and religious improvement among this tribe, and they would seem to be one of the very, very few that have benefited in morals and manners by an intercourse with white men.  The parties which visited them about twenty years previously, in the expedition fitted out by Mr. Astor, complained of their selfishness, their extortion, and their thievish propensities.  The very reverse of those qualities prevailed among them during the prolonged sojourns of Captain Bonneville.

The Lower Nez Perces range upon the Way-lee-way, Immahah, Yenghies, and other of the streams west of the mountains.  They hunt the beaver, elk, deer, white bear, and mountain sheep.  Besides the flesh of these animals, they use a number of roots for food; some of which would be well worth transplanting and cultivating in the Atlantic States.  Among these is the camash, a sweet root, about the form and size of an onion, and said to be really delicious.  The cowish, also, or biscuit root, about the size of a walnut, which they reduce to a very palatable flour; together with the jackap, aisish, quako, and others; which they cook by steaming them in the ground.

In August and September, these Indians keep along the rivers, where they catch and dry great quantities of salmon; which, while they last, are their principal food.  In the winter, they congregate in villages formed of comfortable huts, or lodges, covered with mats.  They are generally clad in deer skins, or woollens, and extremely well armed.  Above all, they are celebrated for owning great numbers of horses; which they mark, and then suffer to range in droves in their most fertile plains.  These horses are principally of the pony breed; but remarkably stout and long-winded.  They are brought in great numbers to the establishments of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and sold for a mere trifle.