11. A party of Moscow hunters told Dr. Clifford M. Drury a number of years ago of finding cannon deserted by Howard’s command on the Lolo Trail.
12. Merrill D. Beal, “I Will Fight No More Forever”; Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War, p. 252.
13. Crawford, The Nez Percés Since Spalding, p. 6. Mary M. Crawford, forty-one years a missionary among the Nez Perces at Lapwai, says this term was applied by the Indians. “Everything not Nez Perces was ‘Boston’—a hand-down from the old days of the Hudson Bay Company.”
14. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, p. 426.
17. The Battle of the Big Hole
1. Shields, The Battle of the Big Hole, pp. 78–79. Yellow Wolf states in his Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, p. 109, that this prophecy was unknown to him. Lone Bird, “a brave fighter,” he further relates, gave the first warning and urged more haste before reaching the Big Hole camp. But Yellow Bull affirms “Pile Of [sic] Clouds was a medicine-man and had visions showing the enemy.” Curtis, The North American Indian, VIII, 166. Because Looking Glass refused to hurry the march or heed the warnings, he was blamed for the disaster which followed. The chiefs then deposed him as leader and appointed Poker Joe (Lean Elk).
2. Tilden was seventy-one years old in 1934, and he was a boy of nine at the time of Joseph’s march.
3. Ralph R. Wayne, Sunday Missoulian, August 5, 1934, Missoula, Montana. From a newspaper article featuring Samuel Tilden.
4. Thomas C. Sherrill, Battle of the Big Hole in August, 1877, p. 4.
5. This is the same Lieutenant Bradley who discovered the bodies of Custer’s troops after the battle of the Little Big Horn.
6. Shields, The Battle of the Big Hole, p. 46.
7. Wayne, op. cit.
8. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 70. Report of Colonel Gibbon.
9. Regarding this Tilden says, “There was an officer killed by an Indian woman. She stayed with her man, Supsis Elpelp, one of the bravest Nez Perce warriors, when he went out. The officer dying, or someone else near-by killed the woman—anyway she was killed.” Yellow Wolf confirms this, identifying the warrior as Wahlitits (Walaitits) and his wife. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, p. 133. Eloosykasit gives a detailed account in ibid., p. 135.
10. Shields, The Battle of the Big Hole, pp. 51–52.
11. Ibid. Although Joseph’s words have not been recorded for posterity, J. H. Horner, in a letter, October 20, 1941, writes: “I was well acquainted with one of the volunteer scouts who was at the battle of the Big Hole and he told me he could hear Joseph give his commands above the roar of the guns and cannon. Yes, Joseph was indisputably the War Chief.”
12. The Indians affirmed that these three young men who precipitated the war were killed by the whites, but McWhorter in Yellow Wolf, p. 44, states that Swan Necklace, the youngest of the trio, survived the war and successfully kept his identity concealed from the whites until after his death in the late twenties on the Nez Perce Reservation. (For an Indian’s personal account of the Big Hole battle, see McWhorter, op. cit., pp. 114 ff.)
13. Shields, “The Battle of the Big Hole,” in Brady, Northwestern Fights and Fighters, p. 179.
14. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 70. Report of Colonel Gibbon.
15. Shields, in Brady, op. cit., p. 184. White Bird was the oldest of the chiefs, being past seventy, and according to the Indians did no active fighting until the last battle.
16. Gibbon, “The Battle of the Big Hole,” Harper’s Weekly, 1895, p. 1235.
17. Shields, Blanket Indians of the Northwest, p. 107.
18. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, p. 157, note 11.
19. McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 385, note 44.
20. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, His Own Story, pp. 132, 162. It would appear that Alokut had at least two wives at this time, for another one, Wetatonmi, was not injured. Ibid., pp. 137–38.
21. Gibbon, in Harper’s Weekly, ibid.
22. Jack Conley, a soldier with Miles’s command, told Howard and McGrath that the mirror worn on Looking Glass’s forehead reflected the sun’s rays, which attracted the troops’ attention, and they turned the cannon upon him. But the scout, Milan Tripp, is reputedly the sharpshooter who killed Looking Glass as he raised up from a rifle pit. McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 495 and note 6.
23. Dr. Edmond S. Meany, “Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce,” Master of Letters Thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Professor Edmond Meany in his thesis relates: “On June 25, 1901, while visiting at Nespilem, the writer went with Chief Joseph to the blacksmith shop and . . . the Chief talked of his last battle. With his cane he drew on the earth-floor a rough outline of the field, locating the opposed forces. The spots were indicated where had fallen his brother, Chief Ollicutt, Chief Looking Glass and Chief Too-hul-hul-sote—three chiefs lost in the last battle.”
24. McLaughlin, My Friend the Indian, p. 365.
25. Forse, “Chief Joseph as a Commander,” Winners of the West, November, 1936, p. 4. Regarding the deplorable slaughter of non-combatant women and children, Yellow Wolf and other Nez Perces give eyewitness testimony in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, pp. 132, 136 ff. Judging by all the evidence the whites came off the Big Hole battlefield with anything but a glorious record.
26. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 549. Report of Captain Rawn. Rawn writes: “A detachment of one commissioned officer, Second Lieutenant J. T. Van Orsdale, . . . and six enlisted men . . . left the post on September 20 for the battlefield of the Big Hole, with instructions to reinter the bodies of their comrades . . . as information was received that several of the graves were opened, and the bodies buried therein dragged to the surface by bears and other animals.”
27. Shields, The Battle of the Big Hole, p. 87.
28. Howard, Chief Joseph, His Pursuit and Capture, p. 210. Also J. P. Dunn, Jr., Massacres of the Mountains, p. 663.
29. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, p. 427.
30. Howard, op. cit., p. 208.
31. Shields, The Battle of the Big Hole, pp. 88, 89, 92.
32. Gibbon, in Harper’s Weekly, op. cit. A stone monument, sculptured by Alonzo V. Lewis, of Seattle, Washington, has been erected to Joseph on the Big Hole battlefield. In a letter, dated October 5, 1942, L. V. McWhorter writes: “The Chief Joseph Memorial shaft . . . on the Big Hole field stands on the brink of the bluff and slightly southeast of the Soldier monument. Not far from where Five Wounds was killed.” Also, in this connection, under date of September 25, 1942, Mr. McWhorter asks: “I presume that you [i.e., Miss Howard] are aware of the fact that a Bill for erecting a monument to Chief Joseph at Lapwai, Idaho, was fought by the Christian element among the Nez Perces? This was in 1939.”
33. Howard, op. cit., pp. 272–73.
34. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, pp. 145–46.
35. McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 385.
36. Ibid., p. 394. Yellow Wolf confirms this in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, p. 155.
18. The Camas Meadows Raid
1. Alexander Cruikshank, “Reminiscences,” Manuscript in Idaho State Historical Library, Boise.
2. J. P. Clough, “Recollections of the Nez Perce Indian War of 1877, and Their Entrance into Lemhi Valley,” Manuscript in Idaho State Historical Library, Boise.
3. Henry C. Johnson, “Volunteer Survivor Recalls Battle with Indians East of Cottonwood,” Manuscript in the Idaho State Historical Library, Boise.
4. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 129. Report of Brigadier General Howard.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 611.
7. Howard, Chief Joseph, His Pursuit and Capture, p. 225.
8. Howard, in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 612.
9. Ibid.
10. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 573. Report of Captain Norwood.
11. Sergeant H. J. Davis, “The Battle of Camas Meadows,” in Brady, Nor
thwestern Fights and Fighters, p. 196. Instead of Joseph these were probably Peopeo and his companions.
12. Ibid. The Indians admit two men were slightly wounded.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Wood, “Chief Joseph, the Nez Percé,” Century Magazine, May, 1884, p. 140.
16. Redington was a traveling printer at the outbreak of hostilities, and offered his services to the governor of Idaho. He had had military experience in Massachusetts.
17. The soldiers claimed the Indians approached the camp by columns of fours like cavalry, but the Nez Perces denied this. A detailed account of the raid from the Indian viewpoint is given in McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, pp. 417 ff.
18. Haines, Red Eagles of the Northwest, p. 287.
19. Howard, in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 613.
19. The Attack on the Cowan and Weikert Parties
1. Guie and McWhorter, eds., Adventures in Geyser Land, by Frank D. Carpenter, p. 97.
2. Ibid., p. 103. Yellow Wolf’s account of the episode is given in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, pp. 172 ff.
3. Duncan MacDonald, New Northwest, 1879, Deer Lodge, Montana. An extract from MacDonald’s The Nez Percés in 1877—the Inside History from Indian Sources. Duncan MacDonald’s father was a Scotch trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and his mother was a Nez Perce. MacDonald lived on the Flathead Reservation in Montana until his death. In McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, p. 44, Um-til-ilp-cown is given as Wetyetmas Wahyakt (Swan Necklace). He was also known as John Minthon. Regarding the attack on Cowan, Yellow Wolf explains that it was the “bad boys” who tried to kill the white men.
4. Ibid.
5. Guie and McWhorter, op. cit., p. 129.
6. Ibid., p. 135.
7. Ibid.
8. Mrs. George F. Cowan, “Reminiscences of Pioneer Life,” Contributions: Historical Society of Montana, IV (1903), 173. The babe referred to by Mrs. Cowan was probably Joseph’s infant daughter, born before the White Bird battle.
9. White Bird is generally credited with ordering the release of the Cowan party, but it is Sam Tilden’s opinion that they were freed by order of Joseph. The confusion on this point may have arisen from the fact that White Bird was sometimes called “Joe Hale,” and that Poker Joe actually did guide the Cowans away from the Indian encampment. Mrs. Cowan herself is not specific on this point.
10. Mrs. George F. Cowan, “Reminiscences of Pioneer Life.”
11. Ibid. Shively was the prospector who had been captured. The Nez Perces impressed him into service as a guide through the park, but treated him well and finally permitted him to escape.
12. Guie and McWhorter, op. cit., pp. 222–24.
13. Andrew J. Weikert, “Journal of a Tour through the Yellowstone National Park in August and September, 1877,” Rocky Mountain Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 1, March, 1902. Same in Contributions: Historical Society of Montana, Vol. III, 1900.
14. Scott, Some Memories of a Soldier, pp. 64–65.
15. McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 442.
16. Ibid.
17. Wood, “Chief Joseph, the Nez Percé,” Century Magazine, May, 1884, p. 140.
20. The Battle of Canyon Creek
1. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 505. Report of Colonel Gibbon.
2. Ibid.
3. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 509. Report of Colonel Sturgis.
4. McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 454. Sam Tilden states that Looking Glass and White Bird planned this strategy. Joseph makes no mention of it in his own story. The supposition is that the chiefs held a council and jointly agreed to the move. McWhorter also disagrees with other accounts that Looking Glass “went to the Crows for help and was rebuffed.” Op. cit., p. 460. However, Yellow Bull reports: “After we reached the Crow country, a Crow chief, son of Double Pipe, came and talked to Looking Glass, telling him that the Crows who were with the soldiers would not shoot at us with the intention of hitting us, but they would aim over our heads.” Curtis, The North American Indian, VIII, 167. Later, a Crow shot a Nez Perce and then the latter regarded them as enemies.
5. Howard, Chief Joseph, His Pursuit and Capture, p. 243.
6. Chester A. Fee, Chief Joseph: the Biography of a Great Indian, p. 320. From the account by C. E. S. Wood. This maneuver was also noted and described by scout S. G. Fisher in his “Journal,” Contributions: Historical Society of Montana, II (1896), 277.
7. Howard, op. cit., p. 255.
8. Theodore Goldin, “The Seventh Cavalry at Cañon Creek,” in Brady, Northwestern Fights and Fighters, p. 214.
9. “Journal of S. G. Fisher,” Contributions: Historical Society of Montana, II (1896), 278–79.
10. Sturgis, in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 511.
11. Ibid. Apparently in this battle Joseph did some active fighting, for Philip Williams, a Nez Perce, reports seeing him “with the rest of the warriors on Canyon Creek.” McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 506.
12. Goldin, op. cit., p. 216.
13. Ibid., p. 217.
14. These figures are based on Sturgis’ official report in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 512. However, Yellow Wolf declares only three warriors were wounded, one of them being hit when a cavalryman fired on them from the bluffs. Three braves were killed later during the running fight with the Crow and Bannock scouts. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, pp. 186–87.
15. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 571. Report of Major Merrill.
16. Goldin, op. cit., p. 221.
17. Sturgis, in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 74.
18. Howard, in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 625.
19. Ibid.
21. The Skirmish at Cow Island
1. McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 471.
2. “Moelchert Correspondence Regarding Cow Island Affair.” Manuscript in possession of Montana Historical Society, Helena, Montana.
3. Oscar O. Mueller, “The Nez Perce at Cow Island,” Montana, the Magazine of Western History, April, 1964, p. 52.
4. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 557. Report of Maj. Ilges.
5. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 73. Report of Col. Miles.
6. James McLaughlin, My Friend the Indian, p. 362.
7. Ibid., p. 363. Joseph’s memory is vague, apparently, on this point, for Miles reports that the chief had kept the country scouted directly to his rear, but his (Miles’s) force approached the Indian camp from an angle.
8. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, pp. 204–5.
22. Battle of the Bearpaw Mountains
1. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 514. Report of Col. Miles.
2. Lieut. Henry Romeyn, “The Capture of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians,” Contributions: Historical Society of Montana, II (1896), 287.
3. Nelson A. Miles, Personal Recollections of General Miles, p. 268.
4. Romeyn, op. cit., p. 288.
5. Nelson C. Titus, “The Last Stand of the Nez Perces,” Washington Historical Quarterly, VI, No. 3, July, 1915, 149.
6. Romeyn, op. cit., p. 287.
7. Yellow Bull’s account appears in Curtis, The North American Indian, VIII, 168. Yellow Wolf’s account appears in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, p. 209 and p. 214.
8. Romeyn, op. cit., p. 287.
9. Ibid.
10. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, p. 428. According to Sam Tilden this daughter was Sarah Moses, whose Nez Perce name meant “Walking-in-crushed-snow.” She was married to George Moses on July 21, 1879, at Lapwai, Idaho. Sarah returned to Idaho from Canada in 1878 with a small group, including Yellow Wolf, that slipped back to join their reservation brethren.
11. Miles, in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 528.
12. Ibid.
13. McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 513.
14. Romeyn, op. cit. A graphic account of conditions within the Nez Perce camp during the battle is g
iven by Yellow wolf in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, pp. 211 ff.
15. “An Indian’s Views . . . ,” op. cit., p. 428. Miles was a colonel at this time, although holding a brevet of major general.
16. Miles, in Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 528.
17. “An Indian’s Views . . . ,” op. cit., p. 429.
Saga of Chief Joseph Page 38
