Ant & Yellowjacket

In the Nimiipuu telling the quarrel began over manners. The ants and the yellowjackets shared what they had and only sometimes argued; the leader of the yellowjackets was eating salmon on a rock when the leader of the ants came by, wanted the rock, and said he should have been asked first. Coyote, Iceye'ye to the Nimiipuu, stopped the fight for good. Stories like this, the park says, taught children the landforms around them along with their language and history. The arch stands on private land above the road cut, and no one should climb to it.

What the plaque says

Ant & Yellowjacket According to a Nez Perce Indian legend the stone arch up the hill was once two fighting insects. Ant and Yellowjacket had an argument and came to blows over who had the right to eat dried salmon here. Fighting fiercely, they failed to notice Coyote, the all-powerful animal spirit. Even when he ordered them to stop, they kept on struggling. For not heeding his warning, he turned them to stone while their backs were arched and their jaws locked together in combat. 264 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spalding — 1.0 mi
  The Nimiipuu went to St. Louis asking about a book. What came back was a mission, a printing press and a museum.

More markers nearby

• Spalding's Mission — 1.3 mi
• Coyote's Fishnet — 2.4 mi
• Nez Perce Village — 2.4 mi
• Lapwai Mission — 2.8 mi