When White Bird refused to surrender at Bear Paw, he refused on the basis of a lifetime of watching what treaty rights actually meant in practice.

The treaty rights he was watching at the end of his life were the fishing rights and the land rights and all the other guarantees that had been negotiated and then reduced and then challenged again.

He was not wrong about the pattern.

The Descendants And The Contemporary Tribe

The Nez Perce Tribe, headquartered at Lapwai, Idaho, represents the continuation of the nimíipuu people — including the descendants of those who surrendered at Bear Paw, those who escaped to Canada, those who returned from exile, and those who had remained on the Lapwai Reservation throughout.

The tribe maintains government-to-government relationships with the federal government and with the states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.