The nimíipuu language carries the history of the 1877 events in ways that no English text can fully replicate.

C’aynnim Alikinwaaspa — the Place of the Manure Fire — is a name that describes the landscape in terms of what the people who used it knew about it.

The English “Bear Paw Battlefield” locates the event in military history.

The nimíipuu name locates it in the landscape as the nimíipuu knew it.

nimíipuu itself — “the people” — is a claim of existence and identity that does not need external validation.

The name the Nez Perce were given by French Canadian traders — a name that has been given various explanations, some of them apparently inaccurate — is not the name the people use for themselves. nimíipuu, pronounced Nee-mee-poo, is the name they use.