Copyright 1999 - 2003 - Janine M. Bork
This page is part of the
Union County, OR AHGP
660
HISTORY OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST - OREGON AND WASHINGTON
sioners on behalf of the government,
informed them that the government would issue an order directing them to
go upon the reservation; and that, upon their failure to comply, force
would be employed to put them there. In January, 1877, the orders were
received by the Indian agent at Lapwai to place the Nez Perces on the reservation.
The agent communicated notice of the order to all the bands. Patiently
he labored to persuade the "non-treaties" to go upon the reservation. Failing,
he obeyed the instruction to call upon the United States forces to assist
in the execution of the order. General Howard spent much of April and May
at Wallula, Fort Walla Walla and Lapwai in interviews and talks with the
disaffected, urging very argument to have them voluntarily go upon the
reservation.
Finally, on
the 19th of May, they pretended to assent, but asked for thirty days in
which to do so. General Howard consented; but believing that the Indians
had no intention to comply with his orders, and that the delay was a ruse
to gain time to organize their forces and make preparations for open hostilities,
he at once concentrated all his available troops in the vicinity of the
disaffected country. Before the thirty days had elapsed, White Bird appeared
in Wallowa valley and murdered a number of defenseless women and children.
that war chief of the "non-treaties" arrayed in his war paint, rode through
the country, defying the Whites and loudly proclaiming that they would
not go upon the reservation, - that the country belonged to them, and that
they would kill soldiers or citizens who opposed their keeping it.
About the same
time an outbreak had occurred at Mount Idaho, twenty white men and women
having been murdered, and a number of women brutally outraged. On hearing
this, general Howard sent, June 15th, two companies of United States cavalry,
Captains Perry and Trimble, to White Bird cañon, where White Bird's
band was found in force. The Indians opened fire on Captain Perry's command,
which he returned. After an hour's severe fighting, Perry was compelled
to fall back on Grangeville, sixteen miles distant, the Indians pursuing
and fighting him all the way. He lost thirty men and one officer, Lieutenant
Theller. On June 21st, eight companies, or rather fractions of companies,
amounting in all to something over two hundred effective men rank and file,
were at Fort Lapwai with a small company of volunteers under Captain Paige.
General Howard took the field in person.
The march commenced
at noon on the twenty-second. Detachments of troops were sent in several
directions, all of which were to concentrate at Johnson's Ranch, near Grangeville.
From there the column moved to the head of White Bird cañon. Preparations
were now made to cross the Salmon river. Joseph with his Indians had avoided
an engagement. Several skirmishes had taken place, the little detachment
commanded by Lieutenant S.M. Rains having all been murdered on scouting
service. On the 11th of July the Indians were discovered encamped on the
South fork of the Clearwater. In Joseph's camp were three hundred warriors,
perhaps an equal number of squaws, who rendered most efficient assistance
in providing spare horses and ammunition, and many boys bearing arms. General
Howard's fighting force was four hundred men. The battle of Clearwater
continued for two days, when the Indians scattered and fled in every direction,
closely pursued by the troops. Joseph lost twenty-three killed, forty wounded,
many of whom subsequently died; and forty were taken prisoners. General
Howard's loss was thirteen killed and twenty-two wounded. The Indian camp
was abandoned in haste; and the lodges were left standing, filled with
their effects, blankets, buffalo robes, cooking utensils, food cooking
on the fires, flour, jerked beef and plunder of all descriptions (1).
General Howard
renewed the pursuit the next morning, in the direction of Kamiah. The Indians
crossed the Clearwater and reconcentrated at We-ipe creek; and on the fifteenth
Joseph started for Montana and the buffalo country by the Lolo trail. On
having ascertained this, General Howard sent couriers to the nearest telegraph
station to advise General Sherman and the posts east of the Bitter Root
Mountains of the flight of Joseph and the hostiles. He also sent notice
to General John Gibbon, commanding the District of Montana, reporting the
situation, - that Joseph had started across the Lolo rail, - and requested
the sending of troops to intercept the hostiles, if possible; while he
should follow them with such force as could be available.
General Gibbon
at once sent orders to Captain Rawn, commanding Fort Missoula, to watch
the fugitives, head them off, hold them if possible, or turn them back.
Captain Rawn's command consisted of his own and Captain William Logan's
company of the Seventh Infantry; and they were reinforced by a hundred
Montana citizens. Advised of the approach of the Indians, they took a position
at the mouth of a cañon on Lolo creek, which they fortified. Joseph
advanced the next day, and sent a flag of truce, asking to pass quietly
into the valley. Captain Rawn demanded the surrender of the arms of the
party, which occasioned two days parley. Many of the citizens urged the
granting of Joseph's request. At the end of the second day, Joseph notified
Captain Rawn that he was going into the valley the next morning. At daylight
firing was heard along the skirmish line, as though the Indians designed
attack. While all were intent on watching the front, it was ascertained
that Joseph had left a few men to skirmish with the pickets; while the
main body, through gulches, has passed the lines of works. Captain Rawn
pursued the fugitives as quickly as possible, but failed to overtake them
before they reached Bitter Root valley. He found them encamped in a strong
position on a ridge in a body of timber. As it was the height of rashness
with his force to attack them, he returned to his post to await reinforcements.
On the 30th of July, General Howard, his force now strengthened to seven hundred men, began the march across the Lolo trail. General Gibbon, having received General Howard's dispatch, with a force of one hundred and forty-six United States troops and seventeen officers, and thirty-six citizen volun-
(1) "Chief Joseph: His pursuit and Capture,"
by O.O. Howard, Brigadier-General, U.S. Army, page 166.
The Indian
loss was eighty-nine buried. Joseph subsequently admitted a loss of two
hundred and eight. Among the Indian slain were the war chief and diplomat
Looking-glass, and Tups-sis-il-pilp and Wallitze, two of the three Indian
murderers who precipitated the war. General Howard resumed the pursuit
as soon as practicable. He followed the hostiles through the mountains.
Having learned their intention to escape into the British possessions,
he
sent a courier to General Miles at Fort Keogh; and that efficient officer
and brilliant Indian fighter headed off the fugitives at Bear paw Mountain.
Before reaching that last battle-ground, Joseph had attacked General Howard
on the 19th and 20th of August, at camas Meadows, but had been beaten off.
General Sturgis had struck him on the 13th of September. Desultory firing
lasted four days. On the 4th of October, he surrendered to General Miles.
In that battle Ollicott and old Too-hul-hul-sote were among the slain.
White Bird escaped with a small band, and crossed the British boundary.
The remainder, between three and four hundred men, women and children,
were transferred to the Indian Territory, and located on the salt fork
of the Arkansas river. Congress passed an act March 3, 1885, authorizing
the Secretary of the Interior to send them to any Indian reservation which
he might choose. they have since been escorted by troops back to Idaho.
A portion has returned to the Nez Perce nation. Joseph and the remainder
are on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington.
CHIEF MOSES' DEMONSTRATION.
In the summer
of 1878,the citizens of the eastern portion of Washington Territory were
alarmed by the excitement among the Indians, growing out of the outbreak
of the Shoshones; and in some places measures for self-protection were
deemed necessary. Chief Moses and his band, numbering about two hundred
warriors, had refused to go upon any reservation; and they were suspected
also of having been accomplices in the murder of Mr. Perkins and his wife,
who met their death at the hands of a vagrant band of Columbia river Indians,
instigated or influenced by that great mischief maker, Smo-heller the "dreamer."
I that fall, Reverend J.H. Wilbur, Indian Agent in charge of the Yakima
Reservation, was instructed to induce Moses and his people to go upon the
Yakima Reservation.
Moses was sent
for, but declined to go, giving as his reason that the government ha assured
him that he should be assigned to a separate reservation. He not only denied
all complicity in the Perkins murder, but offered guides to assist him
in the arrest of the murderers, whom he alleged were located about forty
miles form his camp. A party was organized, consisting of fifteen Yakima
Reservation Indians and thirty white volunteers from Yakima City; and it
was understood that Moses and his party should have on day's start of the
Yakima party, in order to make arrangements for crossing the Columbia river.
When Moses
arrived at the appointed place, he found that the arresting party had proceeded
to a point twelve miles below. This circumstance, together with the fact
that he had been advised that the Whites had plotted to waylay and kill
him on the way home, and also that the police and volunteers intended to
arrest him and confine him in the Yakima jail, excited his suspicions.
He declined to furnish the guides as he agreed; and he, with sixty armed
men, defiantly confronted the volunteer party. After considerable talk,
without collision, Moses returned to his camp.
Three days
later he asserts he started with nine of his band to join the volunteer
party, who were endeavoring to capture the murderers. Before over-taking
them he camped for the night; and the volunteers who were in the vicinity,
mistaking Moses' camp-fires for those of the party of murderers they were
seeking, surrounded the camp and took Moses and his nine men prisoners.
All were disarmed, the other having killed himself to avoid arrest. Moses
and the other four of his band were taken to Yakima City and confined in
jail without formal examination. A week later Indian Agent J.H. Wilbur
induced the citizens of Yakima to turn over to him Moses and his fellow
Indian prisoners. Under a strong guard, to prevent the citizens form killing
him, Moses and his four companions were taken to the agency, where they
remained for three months, notwithstanding the persistent efforts of the
citizens to have them returned to the jail.
On the 12th of February, 1879, the Commissioner of Indian affairs ordered Moses to Washington for a conference. This order was communicated to the authorities of Yakima county; and, upon their agreement that he should not be arrested, eh was allowed to return to his camp and make preparations for his journey to Washington. At the end of ten
Agent Wilbur
then waived a preliminary examination, offered bail for Moses' appearance
at the next term of court, which was accepted and Moses went to Washington.
After several conferences with him, on the 19th of April, 1870, a reservation
was set apart for Moses and his people, called the Columbia Reservation,
which adjoins the Colville Reservation on the west. The delegation returned
to the general commanding the department with the special request to that
officer, and a similar one to the governor of the territory, requesting
that Moses and his party be forwarded to their reservation without arrest
or further interference. The Perkins murderers were tried at the October,
1879, term of the Yakima court; and three of them were convicted of murder.
The charge against Chief Moses was dismissed, the grand jury failing to
find any indictment.
END OF VOLUME II.