The Riding Program:

The CJF Riding Program is a progressive program that the Nez Perce community youth ages 6-18 advance through, beginning with the basics of horse handling safety and continues up through advanced riding techniques interwoven with culturally relevant history and crafts.  Participants learn proper equitation (position) in the saddle and how it relates to enhanced communication with the horse.  Life skills such as, emotional control, setting boundaries, problem solving with critical thinking skills, respect, responsibility, and positive self-talk are all interwoven with the basic horsemanship skills needed to correctly and confidently ride a horse.   The physical aspect of riding increases fitness, balance, and flexibility.   A solid curriculum with a foundation in safety, sound horsemanship skills, and cultural preservation encourages pride of association from the participants and Nez Perce community.

The Nez Perce Mounted Scholars Program:

The Chief Joseph Foundation partners with the Lapwai Middle School for the Mounted Scholars Program. Students who are at-risk of failure and/or with poor attendance are invited to participate in this program. Each school day the students spend a portion of their day involved in classroom activities learning about the horse, Nez Perce culture, history and traditions. The students also have the hands on experience of working with the horses at the Chief Joseph Foundation. They learn how to groom, saddle and eventually ride the horse.

The National Chief Joseph Trail Ride:

Each year the Chief Joseph Foundation identifies and selects four or five of their youth riders to participate in the National Chief Joseph Trail Ride. One of the most historic trail rides in the United States today, this ride follows the 1300-mile trek the Nez Perce people took during their flight from the U. S. Cavalry in 1877. It takes thirteen years to ride the entire trail, as each year the riders travel 100 miles over a 5-day period, riding 20 miles per day. The ride starts at the homeland of the Nez Perce in the Wallowa Valley in Joseph, Oregon and finishes at Bear Paw Battlefield in Montana where Chief Joseph handed over his rifle and said, “From where the sun now stands I shall fight no more forever.” The importance of youth participating in this ride is monumental. It is a ride that deepens their respect for the trail and gives them a great sense of accomplishment. Riding the trail where their ancestors rode many years ago enables these youth to connect with their heritage and be proud of who they are.

The Appaloosa Trail ride is an annual ride that follows the trail that the Nez Perce followed during the war with the United States Calvary in 1877. Each year the Chief Joseph Foundation raises money to send 3-5 Nez Perce youth on this important historic ride. The cost to send the youth runs approximately $500 each. The Appaloosa Trail Ride Foundation donates part of the cost for each of the children from our Foundation that is fortunate to be selected to make this ride.

The 1877 flight of the Nez Perce from their homelands while pursued by U.S. Army Generals Howard, Sturgis, and Miles, is one of the most fascinating and sorrowful events in Western U.S. history. Chief Joseph, Chief Looking Glass, Chief White Bird, Chief Ollokot, Chief Lean Elk, and others led nearly 750 Nez Perce men, women, and children and twice that many horses over 1,170 miles through the mountains, on a trip that lasted from June to October of 1877.

Forced to abandon hopes for a peaceful move to the Lapwai reservation, the Nez Perce chiefs saw flight to Canada as their last promise for peace. The flight of the Nez Perce began on June 15, 1877. Pursued by the Army, they intended initially to seek safety with their Crow allies on the plains to the east. Their desperate and circuitous route as they tried to escape the pursuing white forces is what we now call the Nez Perce National Historic Trail.

Congress passed the National Trails System Act in 1968, establishing a framework for a nationwide system of scenic, recreational, and historic trails. The Nez Perce (Nimíipuu or Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail stretches from Wallowa Lake, Oregon, to the Bear Paw Battlefield near Chinook, Montana. It was added to this system by Congress as a National Historic Trail in 1986.

This route was used in its entirety only once; however, component trails and roads that made up the route bore generations of use prior to and after the 1877 flight of the nontreaty Nez Perce.

The trail starts at Wallowa Lake, Oregon, then heads northeast and crosses the Snake River at Dug Bar. It enters Idaho at Lewiston and cuts across north-central Idaho, entering Montana near Lolo Pass. It then travels through the Bitterroot Valley, after which it re-enters Idaho at Bannock Pass and travels east back into Montana at Targhee Pass to cross the Continental Divide. It bisects Yellowstone National Park, and then follows the Clark Fork of the Yellowstone out of Wyoming into Montana. The trail heads north to the Bear’s Paw Mountains, ending 40 miles from the Canadian border.