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The Nez Perce War
The Nez Perce War was an armed conflict that pitted several bands of the Nez Perce tribe and their allies, including Chief Joseph and his younger brother Ollokot, Chief White Bird, Chief Toohoolhoolzote, Chief Looking Glass, Chief Red Echo and Chief Bald Head against the United States Army.
The conflict, fought between June and October 1877, stemmed from the refusal of several bands of the Nez Perce, dubbed "non-treaty Indians," to give up their ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest and move to an Indian reservation in Idaho.
This forced removal was in violation of the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla, which granted the tribe 7.5 million acres in their ancestral lands and the right to hunt and fish in lands ceded to the government.
The New York Times wrote in 1877 "On our part, the war was in its origin and motive nothing short of a gigantic blunder and a crime".
Nez Perce Surrender
The Nez Perce were pursued by elements of the U.S. Army with whom they fought a series of battles and skirmishes on a fighting retreat of 1,170 miles. The war ended after a final five-day battle fought alongside Snake Creek at the base of Montana's Bears Paw Mountains only 40 miles from the Canada–US border.
A large majority of the surviving Nez Perce represented by Chief Joseph surrendered. The 418 Nez Perce who surrendered, including women and children, were taken prisoner and sent by train to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
White Bird, of the Lamátta band of Nez Perce, managed to elude the Army after the battle and escaped with an undetermined number of his band to Sitting Bull's camp in Canada.
Chief Joseph - I am Tired of Fighting
On October 5, 1877, his speech, as he surrendered to General Howard, immortalized Chief Joseph in American history forever.
Aftermath
In total, the Nez Perce engaged 2,000 American soldiers of different military units in eighteen engagements, including four major battles and at least four fiercely contested skirmishes.
During the surrender negotiations, Howard and Miles had promised Chief Joseph that the Nez Perce would be allowed to return to their reservation in Idaho. But, the commanding general of the Army, William Tecumseh Sherman, overruled them and directed that the Nez Perce were sent to Kansas. "I believed General Miles, or I never would have surrendered," Chief Joseph said afterward.
Miles marched his captives 265 miles to the Tongue River Cantonment in southeast Montana Territory, where they arrived on October 23, 1877, and were held until October 31. The able-bodied warriors were marched out to Fort Buford, at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers.
Between November 8 and 10, the Nez Perce left Fort Buford for Custer's post Fort Abraham Lincoln across the Missouri River from Bismarck in the Dakota Territory.
On November 23, the Nez Perce prisoners had their lodges and equipment loaded into freight cars and themselves into eleven rail coaches for the trip via train to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
Chief Joseph Visits Washington
Chief Joseph went to Washington in January 1879 to plead that his people be allowed to return to Idaho. While he was greeted with acclaim, the U.S. government did not grant his petition. Instead, Joseph and the Nez Perce were sent to Oklahoma and eventually located on a small reservation near Tonkawa, Oklahoma.
In 1885, Joseph and 268 surviving Nez Perce were finally allowed to return to the Pacific Northwest. Joseph, however, was not permitted to return to the Nez Perce reservation but instead settled at the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington. He died there in 1904.
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 Surrender Speech
Chief Joseph
October 5, 1877 Bear Paw Mountains
Montana, USA.
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, Ta Hool Hool Shute 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.
Chief Joseph (1840 – 1904)
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