Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Tu-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men [Ollokot] is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are – perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
The first documented contact between the Nee-Me-Poo and white men occurred in 1805-6, when the Meriwether Lewis and William Clark army expedition to the Pacific passed through their lands, received assistance from them, and collected initial information about them. Subsequent exploring parties, principally those of the establishing fur companies, provided additional data. Early French-Canadian observers called the Nee-Me-Poo "Nez Perces" (pronounced in French "Nay-pair-SAY," but later anglicized to today's "Nez Purse"), in actuality a term prescribed for numerous groups who pierced their noses with dentalium shells. And although the Nee-Me-Poo apparently never practiced this custom extensively, they nonetheless retained the name. A brave, intelligent, and spiritual people, they had occupied their home territory for millennia, with archeological evidence reaching back for as many as thirteen thousand years. In their traditions, the people believe that they have been here since the time the world was first populated. They lived in several modes of housing, notably rush mat lodges, pine-board structures, and large semi-subterranean bark-covered dwellings, all capable of accommodating several families. Linguistically, the Nee-Me-Poo were of the Penutian language group and spoke a Sahaptian dialect, as did neighboring tribes of the Columbia Plateau. Like the mostly sedentary groups to the west, the Nee-Me-Poo traditionally subsisted on salmon, but they also hunted game in the forests and prairies and consumed local berries, roots, and tubers, especially relishing those of the camas and kouse plants.
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, popularly known as Chief Joseph, or Young Joseph (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904) was the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Nez Perce to a reservation in Idaho. For his principled resistance to the removal, he became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker.
In 1873, Joseph negotiated with the federal government to ensure his people could stay on their land in the Wallowa Valley. But in 1877, the government reversed its policy, and Army General Oliver Howard threatened to attack if the Wallowa band did not relocate to the Idaho Reservation with the other Nez Perce. Joseph reluctantly agreed. General Howard held a council to try to convince Joseph and his people to relocate. Joseph finished his address to the General, which focused on human equality, by expressing his "[disbelief that] the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do." Howard reacted angrily, interpreting the statement as a challenge to his authority. When Toohoolhoolzote protested, he was jailed for five days.
Returning home, Joseph called a council among his people. At the council, he spoke on behalf of peace, preferring to abandon his father's grave over war. Toohoolhoolzote, insulted by his incarceration, advocated war. The Wallowa band began making preparations for the long journey, meeting first with other bands at Rocky Canyon. At this council too, many leaders urged war, while Joseph argued in favor of peace. While the council was underway, a young man whose father had been killed rode up and announced that he and several other young men had already killed four white settlers. Still hoping to avoid further bloodshed, Joseph and other non-treaty Nez Perce leaders began moving people away from Idaho.
With 2,000 U.S. soldiers in pursuit, over 800 Nez Perce went north in an attempt to reach Canada. For over three months, the Nez Perce outmaneuvered and battled their pursuers traveling 1,170 miles (1,900 km) across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. General Howard was impressed with the skill with which the Nez Perce fought, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications. Finally, after a devastating five-day battle during freezing weather conditions with no food or blankets, with the major war leaders dead, Joseph formally surrendered to General Nelson Appleton Miles on October 5, 1877 in the Bear Paw Mountains of the Montana Territory, less than 40 miles (60 km) south of Canada in a place close to the present-day Chinook in Blaine County. The battle is remembered in popular history by the words attributed to Joseph at the formal surrender:
The popular legend deflated, however, when the original pencil draft of the report was revealed to show the handwriting of the later poet and lawyer Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood, who claimed to have taken down the great chief's words on the spot. In the margin it read, "Here insert Joseph's reply to the demand for surrender"[9][10] Although Joseph was not technically a war chief and probably did not command the retreat, many of the chiefs who did had died.Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.[8]
Colonel Miles left Fort Keogh on September 18 with a force of 520 soldiers, civilian employees, and scouts, including about 30 Indian scouts, mostly Cheyenne but with a few Lakota (Teton Sioux).[14] Some of the Indian scouts had fought against Custer in the Battle of the Little Big Horn only 15 months earlier, but had subsequently surrendered to Miles.[15]
Miles was anxious to get involved in the pursuit of the Nez Perce and marched expeditiously north-west. He hoped to find the Nez Perce south of the Missouri River. His first destination was the mouth of the Musselshell River and from there he planned to move up the south bank of the Missouri. At the Missouri, Miles was joined by scout Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly. On September 25, Miles received a dispatch informing him of the Cow Creek fight and that the Nez Perce had crossed the Missouri going north. He changed his plans, crossed the Missouri, and headed toward the northern side of the Bear Paw Mountains passing the east side of the Little Rocky Mountains. Miles made every effort to keep his presence unknown to the Nez Perce whom be believed were only a few miles to his west. [16]
On September 29, several inches of snow fell. That day, Miles’ Cheyenne scouts found the trail of the Nez Perce and a few soldiers and civilian scouts had a skirmish with Nez Perce warriors. The next morning the Cheyenne found the Nez Perce encampment on Snake Creek north of the Bear Paw mountains. Miles soldiers advanced toward it.[17]
That same day, scouts reported to the Nez Perce leaders the presence of a large number of people to their east. Most of their leaders wished to continue quickly on toward Canada, but Looking Glass prevailed. The people seen, he said, must be other Indians. Assiniboine and Gros Ventre were known to be hunting in the area. Consequently, the Nez Perce went into camp on Snake Creek only 42 miles (70km) from Canada and slowly the next morning, September 30, prepared to continue their journey.[18]
Miles hurried his attack on the Nez Perce camp for fear that the Indians would escape. At 9:15 a.m, while still about six miles from the camp, he deployed his cavalry at a trot, organized as follows: the 30 Cheyenne and Lakota scouts led the way, followed by the 2nd cavalry battalion consisting of about 160 soldiers. The 2nd cavalry was ordered to charge into into the Nez Perce camp. The 7th cavalry battalion of 110 soldiers followed the 2nd as support and to follow the 2nd on the charge into the camp. The 5th Infantry (mounted on horses) of about 145 soldiers followed as a reserve with a Hotchkiss gun and the pack train. Miles rode with the 7th cavalry.[19]
Miles was following a tried and true tactic of the U.S. army in fighting Plains Indians: attack a village suddenly and “shock and demoralize all the camp occupants – men, women, and children, both young and old – before they could respond effectively to counter the blow.” [20] However, the Nez Perce were warned by scouts of the approach of the soldiers a few minutes in advance. They were scattered, some gathering up the horse herd, west of the encampment, others packing to leave. Some men quickly gathered to defend the encampment while 50 to 60 warriors and many women and children rushed out of the village to attempt an escape to the north and Canada.[21]
Miles’ plan fell apart quickly. Rather than attacking the camp, the Cheyenne scouts veered to the left toward the horse herd and the 2nd Cavalry, commanded by Captain George L. Tyler, followed them. The Cheyenne and Tyler captured most of the horse herd of the Nez Perce and cut off from the village about seventy men, including Chief Joseph, plus women and children. Joseph told his 14 year old daughter to catch a horse and join the others in a flight toward Canada. Joseph, unarmed, then mounted a horse and rode through a ring of soldiers back into the camp, several bullets cutting his clothing and wounding his horse.[22]
Tyler’s detour to the horse herd eliminated him from the van of the advancing soldiers and the main battle. He detached one company to chase the Nez Perce heading toward Canada. The company pursued the Nez Perce about five miles and then retreated as the Nez Perce organized a counter-attack. Once the women and children were safely out of reach of the soldiers some of the Nez Perce warriors came back to join their main force.
While the Cheyenne, Tyler, and the 2nd Cavalry were chasing horses, the 7th Cavalry, under Captain Owen Hale, followed Miles’ plan by continuing a rapid advance on the village. As they approached, a group of Nez Perce rose up from a coulee and opened fire, killing and wounding several soldiers. The soldiers fell back. Miles ordered two of the three companies in the 7th cavalry to dismount and quickly brought up the mounted infantry, the 5th, to join them in the firing line. Company K meanwhile had become separated from the main force and was also taking casualties. By 3 p.m. Miles had his entire force organized and on the battlefield and he occupied the higher ground. The Nez Perce were surrounded and had lost all their horses. Miles ordered a charge on the Nez Perce positions with the 7th Cavalry and one company of the infantry, but it was beaten back with heavy casualties.
At nightfall on September 30, Miles’ casualties amounted to 18 dead and 48 wounded, including two wounded Indian scouts. The 7th Cavalry took the heaviest losses. Its 110 men suffered 16 dead and 29 wounded, two of them mortally. The Nez Perce had 22 men killed, including three leaders: Joseph’s brother Ollokot, Toohoolhoolzote, and Poker Joe – the last killed by a Nez Perce sharpshooter who mistook him for a Cheyenne.[23] Several Nez Perce women and children had also been killed.
Miles said of the battle that "The fight was the most fierce of any Indian engagement I have ever been in....The whole Nez Perce movement is unequalled in the history of Indian warfare."[24]
During the cold and snowy night following the battle both the Nez Perce and the soldiers fortified their positions. Some Nez Perce crept out between the lines to collect ammunition from wounded and dead soldiers. [25] The Nez Perce dug large and deep shelter pits for women and children and rifle pits for the warriors covering all approaches to their camp which was a square about 250 yards (220 mts) on each side. About 100 warriors manned the defenses, each armed with three guns including a repeating rifle.[26] In the words of a soldier: “to charge them would be madness.[27]
Miles greatest fear – and the Nez Perce’s greatest hope – was that Sitting Bull might send Lakota warriors south from Canada to rescue the Nez Perce. The next morning, the soldiers saw what they thought were mounted columns of Indians on the horizon, but they turned out to be herds of bison. Looking Glass was killed at some point during the siege, when he thought he saw an approaching Lakota and raised his head above a rock to see better and was hit and killed instantly by a sniper’s bullet. [28]
The Cheyenne scouts may have initiated negotiations. Three of them rode into the Nez Perce fortifications and proposed talks with Miles. When Miles agreed, Chief Joseph and five other Nez Perce, including Tom Hill, of mixed Nez Perce\Delaware heritage who acted as interpreter. Soldiers and warriors collected the bodies of their dead during the truce. When the negotiations were unsuccessful, Miles apparently took Joseph prisoner. According to a Nez Perce warrior, Yellow Wolf, “Joseph was hobbled hands and feet” and rolled up in a blanket.[29] Miles’ violation of the truce, however, was checkmated by the Nez Perce. A young lieutenant named Lovell H. Jerome wandered “through his own folly” into the Nez Perce camp during the truce. The Nez Perce took Jerome hostage and the next day, October 2, an exchange of Chief Joseph for Jerome was carried out.[30]
On October 3, the soldiers opened fire again with a 12-pounder Napoleon gun which did little damage to the dug-in Nez Perce although one woman and one small girl were killed when a shell hit a shelter pit. On October 4, in the evening, General Howard with an escort arrived at the battlefield. Howard generously allowed Miles to retain tactical control of the siege.[31]
Meanwhile, the Nez Perce were divided on the subject of surrender, Joseph apparently in favor while White Bird, the one other surviving leader, opposed surrender and favored a break-out through the army’s lines and a dash toward Canada. Joseph later said, “We could have escaped from Bear Paw Mountain if we had left our wounded, old women, and children behind. We were unwilling to do this. We had never heard of a wounded Indian recovering while in the hands of white men.”[32]
In 1879 Chief Joseph went to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Rutherford B. Hayes and plead the case of his people. In 1885, Chief Joseph and his followers were allowed to return to the Pacific Northwest. Some of the Nez Perce were allowed to settle on the Nez Perce reservation around Kooskia, Idaho, but Joseph and others were taken to the Colville Indian Reservation far from both the rest of their people in Idaho and their homeland in the Wallowa Valley.
Colonel Nelson A. Miles gained the most benefit from his participation in the Nez Perce War. His success at Bear's Paw boosted his stock among the leading Indian-fighting officers of the army. In 1880, Miles won the rank of brigadier general commanding the Department of the Columbia, succeeding Howard in this assignment. Five years later, he took command of the Department of the Missouri, headquartered at Fort Leavenworth. In 1886, he supplanted General Crook in the campaign against the Chiricahua Apaches, finally forcing Geronimo's surrender. When Crook died in 1890, Miles moved to Chicago to command the Division of the Missouri, and in 1895, based on seniority, he became Commanding General of the Army. Yet Miles's astounding lack of strategic vision about how the army should change as it assumed new responsibilities in the world during and following the Spanish-American War, as well as his obstinate and increasingly outspoken disposition, rendered him expendable, and he retired in 1903. Largely forgotten in the years that followed, he collapsed and died in 1925, while attending a circus with his grandchildren in Washington, D.C.
Decades later, many Nez Perce men and women related their experiences with the army in 1877, adding significantly to the knowledge, but also to the perspective, of that history. Among them were Wottolen, the tribal historian (who lived to age 109), Two Moon, White Hawk, and Peopeo Tholekt, all participants in the battles and skirmishes. Over the course of almost three decades, Yellow Wolf, who as a young warrior had lived through the events, gave data to historian Lucullus V. McWhorter and accompanied him several times to the sites of the actions, including Big Hole and Bear's Paw. His reminiscences comprise a vital body of information essential to understanding the course of the struggle from Camas Prairie through Bear's Paw, Canada, the Indian Territory, and after. Yellow Wolf died at the Colville Reservation in 1935.[20]
The last Nez Perce survivor of the odyssey was Josiah Red Wolf, who had been but a child when the war took place. He passed away on March 23, 1971, at age ninety-nine.
NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877
The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis
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