The Nez Perce Sikum

The breeding program the panel ends on began in 1994. The Nimiipuu had lost their herds in the war of 1877, and the modern stock-type Appaloosa seemed too heavy to stand for the long, lean horses of the 1800s. A Minnesota breeder donated four Akhal-Teke stallions, a desert breed from Turkmenistan, and the tribe crossed them on thirty-three Appaloosa mares near Lapwai. Rudy Shebala, a Navajo horseman married into the tribe, ran the breeding and the Young Horsemen program, pairing tribal members aged fourteen to twenty-one with a horse to raise. The registry's rules took until 1998.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Fizzle — 2.6 mi
  A log barricade built to stop the Nimiipuu in 1877. They climbed the ridge behind it and walked around.
• Travelers' Rest State Park — 6.6 mi
  The one Lewis and Clark campsite with proof in the ground: hearths, gun lead and a latrine still laced with mercury.
• Fort Missoula — 9.9 mi
  An 1877 Army post that held Italian seamen and Japanese immigrant men behind its fence in World War II.
• A Carousel for Missoula — 13 mi
  A cabinetmaker's promise to the city council: give it a home, and he would carve the horses.

More markers nearby

• Fort Fizzle — 2.6 mi
• Lewis and Clark on Lolo Creek — 2.6 mi
• The Lolo Trail — 6.6 mi
• The Bitterroot Valley, Homeland of the Selíš — 6.9 mi