Persons interested in Indian history will not want to overlook this collection of E. Jane Gay\u27s letters written from Nez Perce (Nimipu) country between 1889-1892. On four separate trips to the West, Gay accompanied her friend, special agent and anthropologist Alice Fletcher, whose job it was to coordinate the allotment of the Nez Perce reservation in Idaho. While Her Majesty (Gay\u27s endearment for Fletcher) figures prominently in the correspondence, the letters tell us less about Fletcher than the subtitle suggests. What they do provide, however, is an insightful account of the allotment process at the local level, and herein lies their value. With the Nez Perces gives its readers the opportunity to better understand the period by looking beyond the implementation of policy, as Gay did, to the ways in which individuals coped with changing circumstances. Editors Hoxie and Mark augment Gay\u27s twenty-seven letters with thirty-eight of her own photographs, a sound introduction, and interpretive endnotes
