White Bird Battlefield
of the Nez Perce War
The White Bird Battlefield near White Bird, Idaho, is the site of the first altercation in the Nez Perce Indian War of 1877.
Nez Perce Chief Joseph led his tribal band from the Oregon reservation near Wallowa until they stopped at White Bird Battlefield in one of his last hurrahs against the U.S. government.
The conflict escalated when gold was discovered around the reservation. Who owned the land was the issue. The Treaty of 1855 designated a portion of the original Nez Perce homeland as a reservation. The Treaty of 1863 reduced the size of the reservation by ninety percent. Many Nez Perce did not recognize the new terms and refused to leave.
Disagreement over the treaty culminated in violence. Young Indian bucks wished to fight in retaliation, but Chief Joseph forbid them. Soon altercations stirred up more ill feelings and increased additional reasons for vengeance.
Chief Joseph began to lose control. He couldn’t hold the aggressive ones back. So, he led over 600 men, women, and children to
White Bird Battlefield overlook
supposed freedom. They managed to elude five thousand Army troops as they fled through Idaho. Amid much confusion and quarrels among the tribe members and with government representatives, wrong was done on both sides.
Some of the Nez Perce did abide by the government’s amended treaty and stayed behind. And by all accounts, Chief Joseph and his non-treaty band desired to live in peace. However, they believed the government often offered half-truths and couldn’t be trusted.
At dawn of June 17, 1877, on the White Bird Battlefield rolling hills, columns of U.S. Army cavalry and local volunteers rode the slopes. Nez Perce tipis scattered the stream valley. The troopers intended to bring a few warriors to justice and persuade the others to move onto the reservation.
A participant named Yellow Wolf explained the inciting moment this way: “Five warriors, led by Wettiwetti Houlis … had been sent out … as a peace party to meet the soldiers. Of course they carried a white flag. Peace might be made without fighting.”
All of a sudden, several gunshots rang out. No one knew why or where they originated. Intense firing erupted along the ridge. Within ten minutes the cavalry and volunteers retreated up slopes, running for their lives. With a couple Nez Perce wounded and thirty-four soldiers killed, full-scale war erupted.
“We were marched into a deep canyon and to a country strange to us, and familiar to the enemy. If there was any plan of attack, I never heard of it,” reported Sgt. Michael McCarthy.
The Nez Perce immediately broke camp and prepared for a perilous journey. They knew the army’s response would be massive. They realized they may never see their homeland again. Thus began a tedious 1,170-mile journey away from the White Bird Battlefield and across four states. Meanwhile, the military mobilized a nationwide effort to suppress the Nez Perce.
Though some of the Nez Perce escaped to Canada, Chief Joseph and most of his tribe were stopped forty miles short of the Canadian border at the forced surrender near Bear Paw Mountain in Montana.
White Bird Highway Bridge
The Nez Perce White Bird Battlefield site is near the town of White Bird, Idaho, about 55 miles from my home. Whenever I visit the overlook at the site with the valley and surrounding mountain ridges, it’s not difficult to imagine marauding soldiers and Native Americans lurking there, avenging ancient grudges.
Pilgrims can travel the full route, all the way from Wallowa, if they like. But you must go at least part of the Nez Perce National Historic Trail route and all of it if you like by horseback. Several of the Nez Perce characters, Thomas Hawk and Elliot Laws, in my new novel, Wind in the Wires, took that trip from the White Bird Battlefield. They started at the top of White Bird Canyon at 4,245-foot elevation.
They turned east at the Highway 95 sign that stated “White Bird Battlefield 7.5 miles” and rode down what’s called the Old Grade. They journeyed on with steep cliff hanging drop-offs alternating left and right. The few guardrails were littered with graffiti by brave souls who risked their lives. Lots of yellow, white, and purple wildflowers seemed to grow out of the rock. No Trespassing signs mark barbed wire and broken down fencing.
After crossing several bumpy cattle guards that rattled their rig, a stretch of loose gravel ended the paved road. An old, rusty tractor and other ancient implements sprawled near a swampy pond. Except for the telephone poles, the landscape mirrored the Old West. Past another sign “White Bird Battlefield 1 Mile Ahead” they spied cattle holding pens and an upright fence near a knoll of trees. A herd of horses clumped together. They soon reached the White Bird Battlefield Trailhead.
They opened a gate and read the warning sign: “Things to remember. Please stay on the marked trail. Poison ivy, rattlesnakes, uneven terrain and high cliffs pose potential hazards. Summer temps can reach over 100 degrees. Bring plenty of water. There
Wind in the Wires
Janet Chester Bly
are no restrooms.”
On their horses they rode to the cleft in the hump of the hill and onward to Lolo Pass and the trek northeast. Along the way to Bear Paw, Montana, Elliot read Chief Yellow Wolf: His Own Story to his grandfather Thomas. Though Chief Joseph was the leader of the tribe, young warrior Yellow Wolf accompanied him on the flight, before he himself was a chief. This book is his personal eyewitness account, recorded by writer L.V. McWhorter.
Thomas and Elliot, a returning soldier from the 1991 Desert Storm war, bond through this journey together and by recapturing their people’s sad history in another war.
Janet Chester Bly
Copyright©2015
The White Bird Canyon Battle: White Bird Battlefield
Follow the route the Nez Perce took from White Bird battlefield in 1877: Nez Perce Historical Trail
The final battle: Bear Paw Battle
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