Sam Morris was born along the Snake River near Alpowai Washington in 1856. His father, also known as Sik’em Ciicqaanin, who resided with the Welewa band, was a distinguished Nez Perce man very wealthy in cattle and horses. His mother was a Walla Walla by the name of Awelot or Toyowewinmy.
Sam was also a brother to the well-known Yellow Wolf, both having the same father but a different mother. Perhaps these two brothers best illustrate the contrasting roles of the Nez Perce people and their involvement in the Nez Perce War of 1877. While his brother Yellow Wolf was fighting on the side of the Non-Treaty Nez Perce, Sam Morris served as a courier for the U.S. Army during the initial battles in Idaho.
When the war ended and the Nez Perce were settled on reservations Sam held traditional, religious, ceremonial and social events at his home. It was during these gatherings that he recorded older songs and orations that might have otherwise been lost, onto an Edison Machine*. The history of many ancient songs made by or used by the Nez Perce were preserved in his collection of recordings.
The Sam Morris Collection is recognized as one of the most significant audio recordings of traditional Nez Perce music and language in the early 1900’s. This collection, a significant part of the Nez Perce Music Archive, is now preserved on compact discs in various educational facilities for future generations.
What makes Sam’s recordings so remarkably unique is the fact that it is the only collection from this time period that was recorded by native subjects themselves, rather than by an anthropologist or ethnologist.
Later in his life Sam traveled to Washington, D.C. on delegation for the
Nez Perce Tribe.
The Edison Machine was an early form of a phonograph, which recorded and played sound on to a thin wax cylinder.