The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the West, 1783-1900

12: Conquest of a Continent

238 With Congress out of session and the army without its appropriations , hopes for a permanent borderlands peace were shattered in mid-June 1877, when young men among the nez Perces (who called themselves the nee-Me-Poo, or the real people), launched a series of attacks against white intruders in the Salmon River region of central idaho. Although the assaults had been uncoordinated, they reflected the pent-up frustration with the incessant challenges to their lifestyle. the nez Perces then routed a mixed command of regular cavalry, volunteers, and allied indian scouts under Captain David L. Perry at White bird Creek, killing thirty-three and wounding four others. “if there was any plan of attack,” muttered one disgusted sergeant, “i never heard of it.”1 War had come. Commanding the Department of the Columbia, brigadier general oliver o. Howard began organizing the chase. the collected followers of Looking glass, Joseph, ollokut, White bird, and toohoolhoolzote, numbering over seven hundred men, women, and children, fought Howard’s main column on July 11–12 at the Clearwater, an engagement notable for the nee-Me-Poos’ inability to agree on tactics and Howard’s unwillingness to aggressively pursue his defeated enemy. the nez Perces then opted to make a break for the buffalo plains to the east, where they hoped to join their old friends, the Crows. their slow pace enabled Colonel John gibbon, leading two hundred men from the +t w e lv e∂ conquest of a continent conquest of a continent 239 District of Western Montana, to attack them on August 9–10 at the big Hole. in a clash that Phil Sheridan described as being “one of the most desperate engagements on record,” twenty-nine soldiers and volunteers were killed and another forty wounded. nez Perce dead numbered twice that many.2 the trek nonetheless continued. Having trailed the nontreaty nez Perces for over five hundred miles into Montana, on September 12 a dispirited Howard called for assistance from Miles, who had briefly served under his command on the eastern front during the Civil War. vain, talented, and needing no further encouragement, Miles marched northwest from the tongue River Cantonment with ten companies of mounted troops, two artillery pieces, and a squad of Cheyenne scouts. the nez Perce cause was further hurt by a sharp engagement on the thirteenth at Canyon Creek with a Seventh Cavalry battalion and Crow scouts. though the nez Perces acknowledged only one man killed, they were nevertheless dispirited, as they realized that the Crows would offer no assistance. “My heart was just like fire,” recalled one warrior. Canada now seemed the only alternative.3 Ridden by internal dissent and worn out from their three-month ordeal, the nez Perces made their way north, their pace easing as they distanced themselves from Howard and Colonel Sturgis. Miles, having gone unnoticed by the nez Perces until it was too late, attacked on the afternoon of September 30 in the bear’s Paw Mountains. the nez Perces threw back the assault and began fortifying their position. Amid the snow and sleet, the army’s cannon lobbed occasional shells into the enemy camp (though terrifying, the weapon’s usefulness was limited because they had brought only twenty-four shells). Perhaps 170 nez Perces managed to elude the army cordon and make their way to Canada, but the remainder were hemmed in. Howard, bringing with him influential nez Perce leaders Captain John and old george, arrived on the fourth. negotiations intensified, and through these emissaries Joseph relayed what has come to be known as his surrender speech: i am tired of fighting. our chiefs are killed. . . . 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 240 chapter twelve 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.4 not all the nez Perces followed Joseph’s lead, as White bird and perhaps fifty others slipped through the soldier lines to Canada. in the years to come, Joseph’s unfulfilled desire to go with his people from their exile in the indian territory back to their homelands came to symbolize the tragedy of the nation’s indian policy. nor...