Photo: Jennifer Rapoza | The Washington Post
Numbering about 6,000 people at the beginning of the 19th century, the Nez Perce once roamed 17 million acres spread across four states in the western US. Their reservation is now confined to a patch of high desert less than one-tenth that size in western Idaho, and their official membership is 3,500. For years, the tribe watched as tour operators built a multi-million-dollar riverboat business through its ancestral lands. But Stacia Morfin is forcing the tourism industry to take the Nez Perce into account. She is the owner of Nez Perce Tourism, a business that offers dinner tours, powwows, Appaloosa-riding experiences, white-water rafting and, of course, river tours. The idea behind her river tours is that there will be Nez Perce on board to share insights that other tour companies cannot. Morfin said, People are looking for a relationship with authentic people, and we've been here for centuries.
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