blackfoot-valley

For readers not familiar with the Nez Perce episode in Montana history, it involved a group of five bands of Nez Perce Indians of the lower Snake River region of Washington - Oregon - Idaho who had refused to accept be- ing ordered to a reservation with other branches of their tribe who had sub- mitted. In a last ditch effort to preserve their culture, approximately eight hundred men, women, and children, driving over two thousand head of stock, moved eastward toward an unknown destination (presumably Canada). They were pursued by the U.S. Army, already smarting from two Nez Perce defeats in Idaho though outnumbering them almost three to one in the first battle and five to one in the second. After entering Montana and eluding a barricade thrown up to block them on Lolo Creek (afterward called “Fort Fizzle”), the Nez Perce camped out in the Big Hole Valley across the Continental Divide from the Bitterroot. At sun-up on August 9th, 1877, they suffered a surprise attack by the U.S. Seventh Infantry under Colonel John Gibbon. The Indians managed to rally to repel the Army troops though suffering horrendous losses, including doz- ens of women and children. At this point, all of Montana was in a state of alarm. Licking their wounds, the Nez Perce turned southeast to Yellowstone and then north, never coming close to the Nevada Valley. Their epic flight was finally stopped only 30 miles short of Canada well east of the Rockies. One group led by White Bird did cross the Canadian border to join Sitting Bull and a group of Sioux who had defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn. “Nez Perce Warriors, circa 1880, with Chief Joseph in the center” 144