The Lapwai Valley is historically connected to the Nez Perce people, who have utilized the area for as long as can be remembered. The name Lapwai actually comes from the Nez Perce word “lap lap,” which refers to a butterfly and the sound that its wings make. As a result of the abundance of butterflies in times past, the area has been referred to as the “Valley of Butterflies” and “Land or Place of the Butterfly.”
The rich history continued in 1805, when Captain Meriweather Lewis and William Clark passed through the area on their way to the Pacific with the Corp of Discovery.
In 1836, Presbyterian minister, Reverend Henry Harmon Spalding founded the Nez Perce Indian Mission at Lapwai.
In 1839, Rev. Spalding published the Bible in Lapwai on the earliest printing press in the Pacific Northwest.
The area became apart of the Oregon Territory in 1848 and a part of the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in 1855. Less than ten years later, the area became part of the Idaho Territory in 1863. This was also at the time when troops were assigned to the Lapwai Valley and Fort Lapwai was established as a response to the 1860 gold rush happening on Nez Perce lands.
Fort Lapwai was in use from 1862 to 1885. It was here that General Oliver O. Howard met with the leaders of Nez Perce non-treaty bands on May 3, 1877, as they made one last attempt to remain on their land.
Fort Lapwai became part of the State of Idaho when Idaho was admitted to the Union as the 43rd state.
The Northern Idaho Indian Agency, originally located at Spalding, was relocated to Fort Lapwai in 1904. Fort Lapwai was later converted into a government Indian school and then into a tuberculosis sanatorium with a hospital, boys’ and girls’ dormitories, and a school.
Lapwai remains as the seat of government for the Nez Perce Indian Nation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Northern Idaho Indian Agency is also still located in Lapwai.
