Ellis (Nez Perce)

Ellis (born 1810) was a Nez Perce leader. He was a grandson of Hohots Ilppilp. As a teenager he went to the Red River Colony where he learned English. He lived in the area of Kamiah, Idaho where he was involved in farming as well as sheep, cattle and horse ranching. Ellis was the first person appointed as leader of all the Nez Perce, at the urging of Elijah White, the U.S. Indian agent for the Oregon Country in 1842. However the idea of a chief for all Nez Perce was so foreign to their previous organization that he was not able to exercise really power as such.

Sources

• Alvin M. Joephy, The Nez Perce and The Opening of the Northwest (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971) p. 223.