Nez Perce meet the white men

Today I learned that Lewis and Clark were the first white men that the Nez Perce met. Of course they had heard of them and had long since acquired and bred horses. They already had six guns though no powder or shot to use with them. They debated between friendship and enmity and chose friendship. They developed good relations with Lewis and Clark and expected a mutually beneficial, amicable relationship between equals. The next people to come were from the group headed for Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia. They would only trade for beaver pelts, which the Nez Perce did not want to collect, and were generally unfriendly. Finally, settlers started to arrive and with them came a government sub-agent named White who was appointed to deal with the Natives in the Pacific Northwest, despite the fact that "ownership" of the territory had not yet been decided between the Americans and the British. White and the settlers again set up friendly and beneficial trade relations but White imposed a bunch of rules on the Indians, primarily designed to protect white settlers, though nominally intended to also protect the Natives. He also wanted the Nez Perce to elect a Head Chief, which is an idea that doesn't fit into their social hierarchy at all. They named a young headman as the so-called "Head Chief" and it's probable that they saw the appointment as for a liaison to meet and talk with the whites, since they chose a young man who had spent time in Canada and spoke passable English.