Book Names Idaho’s Most Influential

A breezy new book explores how individuals made the Gem State what it is. B ut for the intervention of an elderly Nez Perce woman on behalf of Lewis and Clark in 1805, what later became Idaho might have wound up in British hands. So argue Randy Stapilus and Marty Peterson in their new book, “Idaho 100: The people who most influenced the Gem State.” The woman was Wetxiwiis, who spoke up to cool the passions of Nez Perce who argued that the sickened Meriwether Lewis and the broken-hipped William Clark should be killed. Pronounced Wet-k’hoo-wees, her name means “one returned from a faraway country.” She reminded her tribe that whites had helped return her to the Weippe Prairie after she’d been kidnapped by other tribes. The explorers sent by President Thomas Jefferson deserved the same courtesy, she said/ Dan Popkey , Idaho Statesman. More here. (2004 AP file photo: J.R.Simplot and his wife, Esther)

Question: Who do you think are the 5 most influential North Idahoans today, besides Duane Hagadone, who’d have to be No. 1?