This is a study of the obvious and intimated causes of the Nez Perce War of 1877 in Idaho Territory and a collection of reasons explaining why the terms of surrender agreed upon by Chief Joseph and Colonel Nelson A. Miles were not honored by the United States government. There is a relationship between the events preceeding and following the war as they determined the history of the Nez Perce nation throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. National, state and territorial interests, cultural and religious differences, racial prejudices and white greed for Indian lands all contributed either directly or indirectly in determining those events, and, despite the Indians entreaties for fair treatment, molded the Nez Perce nation into the model desired by the white majority of the United States. Research for this study included an examination of the reports of the Secretary of War, the Secretary of Interior, and the Board of Indian Commissioners from the years 1877 to 1893. The Congressional Record and the Senate Miscellaneous Documents from that period were also examined. An excellent source for local for local attitudes was the Lewiston Teller from the years 1875 to 1892. Copies of the newspaper are on file in the Lewiston, Idaho city library. Additional information was obtained from the newspaper files of the Lewiston Morning Tribune, on file in that newspaper’s office, and the Spokesman Review, filed at the Spokane, Washington city library. The director of the Nez Perce National Park kindly loaned me his microfilm copies of letters and reports from agents of the Lapwai, Lehmi and Fort Hall reservations and related correspondence from the years 1862 to 1880. The latter source is also on microfilm at the University of Idaho. Original sources, monographs and general works were researched in Multnomah County and the Oregon Historical Society libraries of Portland, Oregon.

La thèse a pour objet le changement lexical en nez-percé, une langue en danger de l'Idaho (États-Unis)dont le nombre de locuteurs natifs est inférieur à quinze et qui est très peu décrite. L'étude comportedeux axes principaux : la description de la formation des noms de la langue et l'analyse des procédéslexicogéniques employés actuellement dans la création des unités lexicales relatives à l'alimentaire. Aprèsune synthèse linguistique qui renseigne sur la phonologie (plus particulièrement les variations engendréespar les procédés lexicogéniques), l'ordre des constituants et les syntagmes nominaux et verbaux, la thèseétudie la réduplication, la composition, la dérivation affixale (plus spécifiquement les dérivations parsuffixation du morphème de l'analogie et des suffixes ayant subis une conversion catégorielle), et lanominalisation. Puis elle traite de la lexicalisation des métonymies et des métaphores. Enfin, elle analyseles procédés qui conduisent à la création du lexique alimentaire de ces trente dernières années eteffectue une comparaison avec les ressources précédemment identifiées. / The doctoral dissertation analyzes the lexical change in nez perce, an endangered language spoken inIdaho (Unites States of America) that counts less than fifteen native speakers and lacks studies inlexicology. The work is divided into two parts : the description of noun formation, and the analysis of thenew food lexicon. After a synthesis on phonology (modifications due to lexical change), on word order,and on the nominal and verbal clauses, the thesis describes reduplication, compounds, the affixalderivation (especially nouns derived by analogical or converted suffixes) and the lexical nominalisation.Moreover, it deals with the lexicalisations of metonymies and metaphors. Then, it analyzes processes thatlead to the creation of the new food lexicon and compares them with the previously identified processesinvolved in the formation of noun.