IDAHO

IDAHO SAWTOOTH BLUEGRASS ASSOCIATION

The Seventh Annual ISBA "Spring Super Jam" will be held on May 16 to 18, 2014, at the Lewis and Clark Resort in Kamiah, Idaho.  Kamiah is four hours south of Spokane and three hours west of Missoula, MT. Traveling from Billings one would have to take the Missoula route. That goes on Hwy. 12 to Kamiah, the route that has seen many protests about the huge rigs hauling big equipment parts to the Canadian Oil fields. Central Idaho is impassible from east to west. There are two huge wilderness areas there, the Selway-Bitteroot and below it the Frank Church River of No Return. Idaho is similar to two separate states, the northern panhandle and the southern Snake River route  from Idaho Falls to Boise.  Kamiah is in a beautiful area and is along the route that the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled and were fortunate that Sacajawea found her Shoshone brother, who provided  a guide to help them through the mountains. On the western side they came upon the Nez Perce who lived in the Kamiah country.  Some warriors wanted to kill them, but an old woman intervened saying she had been treated well by white men. There they obtained horses and were able to move on toward the Columbia River basin. Other wise they would have perished and disappeared into the mists of our history of the western United States.   Meriwhether Lewis, William Clark and President Thomas Jefferson, all white men, are given most credit for the expansion of the United States to the Pacific a movement also known as our "Manifest Destiny."  Actually two native American Indian women, Sacajawea and the older Nez Perce woman, made the success of the expedition possible. They deserve more credit that they usually get. Behind great men there are great woman - not always their wives or mothers.