Lapwai, ID

Lapwai is a Nez Perce County city in the Lapwai Valley and the seat of government for the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. The 2020 census counted 1,169 residents. The name comes from the Nez Perce word associated with butterflies, giving the city its long-used Valley of Butterflies nickname. Lewis and Clark passed through the valley in 1805, and Henry Harmon Spalding established a Protestant mission among the Nez Perce in 1836.

ATTRIan Poellet / CC BY-SA 4.0

Lapwai's history includes Idaho's early mission school, irrigation, printing, and potato-growing stories, followed by Fort Lapwai and the Northern Idaho Indian Agency. The city incorporated in 1911 and remains the headquarters of the Nez Perce Tribe and the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Northern Idaho agency. Lapwai School District 341 operates the local public schools, with Lapwai High School at the center. Lapwai Days, re-established for the city's centennial in 2011, gives the community a recurring civic celebration rooted in the valley's Nez Perce history and present-day life. The valley remains central.