Nez Perce Trail

Along the Nez Perce Trail

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In 1877, the incessant encroaching of White settlers and orders from the U.S. Government to take his people to the reservation, forced Hin-Mah-too-yah-lat-kekht (Chief Joseph) to flee this beautiful Wallowa Valley in North-Eastern Oregon. He and his small band of Nez Perces struck out in June with hopes of joining Sitting Bull in Canada, where they could live in peace with "Mother Earth."

The first major skirmish of the Nez Perce War took place at this spot near White Bird Creek, Idaho. In the early morning hours of June 17, Captain David Perry watched from atop this hill as 70 Nez Perce warriors turned away 99 of his federal troops. Amid chaos, the troops lost their communications, many of their mounts, and beat a hasty retreat up White Bird Canyon -- towards Grangeville.

From the top of this bluff (upper-right) federal troops fired down upon the Nez Perce who were camped on the opposite side of the Clearwater River. A small band of Indian fighters held the troops at bay, however, while the rest of their tribe quietly retreated to the North near present-day Kooskia, Idaho.

This is the site of Chief Looking Glass' camp on the Middle Fork of the Clearwater river, near Kooskia, Idaho. Federal troops erroneously believed Looking Glass was recruiting warriors in order to join Chief Joseph in his defiance of the government, and launched an attack on this camp in early July. The attack caused Looking Glass to join Joseph and together they began their trek along the Lolo Trail and into Montana Territory.

Along the Lolo Trail: A difficult climb that winds its way into the high country of the Bitterroot. The trail was established long before the Nez Perce used it in their annual trek to their Buffalo hunting grounds. In August of 1877, however, they used it to avoid capture by federal troops.

Ahead of the Nez Perces, and along the Lolo Trail, troops from nearby Fort Missoula built a small barricade and waited to capture Joseph and his band. The Indians were camped two miles away and on July 28, the Indians climbed the slope to the north of the barricade and walked around it while jeering at the troops below. The hastily-constructed "fort" was logically dubbed "Fort Fizzle."

The Lolo Trail was narrow, long, and over-grown with trees and other foliage.

In August -- feeling they had left the federal troops well behind -- the Nez Perces camped on the North Fork of the Big Hole River, in Montana. While they rested and replenished their food supply, troops quietly gathered on the North side of the river. On August 10, the soldiers charged the Indian camp and shot and clubbed men, women, and children. The Nez Perces tried to torch their tipis, but the early morning frost covered them and prevented them from burning. Joseph's brother, Ollokot, led a group to hold the army off, while Joseph escaped to the south with the greater part of his tribe.

"Nez Perce Crossing" -- the place where the fleeing Indians crossed the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

After running from the U.S. Government for more than four months, Chief Joseph and his tired, ragged, ill-equipped and starving Nez Perces arrived on this plain in Northern Montana -- just 40 miles from the Canadian Border. This is "Bear Paw Battlefield" -- near present-day Chinook, Montana.

On October 5, 1877, five inches of snow had fallen on this plain and Joseph, seeing the futility of continuing on, surrendered to Colonel Nelson A. Miles. These two rocks mark the place where the chief stood as he stretched out his arm and relinquished his rifle saying, "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....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."

Epilogue

Chief Joseph and his Nez Perces were shifted from reservation-to-reservation in Montana, Kansas, Dakota Territory, and Oklahoma. Joseph always believed he would once again see his homeland in Oregon. After pleading directly to Congress, he convinced the government to return some of his people to the Valley. On September 21, 1904, However, Joseph died and was later buried in Nespelem, Washington -- on the Colville Reservation. During his 27-year exile, he was never allowed to return to his beloved Wallowa Valley.

Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht

(Thunder Rising in the Mountains)

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Along the Nez Perce Trail

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Noel Photography

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