The Epic of the Nez Perce - Page 2

The following data is extracted from Northwestern Fights and Fighters.

The proceedings were dramatic but not happy. Old Too-hul-hul-sote, the Indian orator, who was remarkable for the inveteracy of his hatred of the white men, was summarily placed under arrest to keep him quiet. Joseph secured his release and the council adjourned on May 7th, Joseph agreeing for himself and the rest to obey the order of the commission and go upon the reservation. He did this most reluctantly, and only because he felt that it would be better to submit to injustice rather than to provoke a war in which he was wise enough to see that he and his people would be the chief sufferers.

A certain time was given him to collect his people and move to the reservation. His pacific intentions were not shared by his younger warriors. Among them were three whose fathers or brothers had been killed by white settlers some time before; a fourth had been beaten by a white man. Some perfunctory investigations had been made; but as they were carried on by the white men, nothing was done to punish the offenders and pacify the enraged Indians. It is certain that the first act of aggression was committed and the first blood was shed by the white men.

Joseph and White Bird had withdrawn to the Salmon River and were engaged in preparing for the removal. The three young Nez Percés mentioned, with a few other reckless braves, resolved to take matters in their hands and, if they could, force the issue. On June 13th, they assumed the offensive. On that and the next day several settlers were murdered. Other warriors joined the first aggressors. The alarm spread through the surrounding ranches and little settlements. From the Norton House at Cottonwood Falls, half-way between Fort Lapwai and the little town of Mount Idaho, the settlers started for the latter place to escape the savages. The party was pursued and overcome. Two men and some children were killed, two others mortally wounded, the women outrageously treated, although Joseph afterward denied this. It is a matter of record that Joseph had no personal knowledge of this affair. He was not there, he had not ordered it, he could not have prevented it. The young men rode into the camp of White Bird waving scalps and other booty, and succeeded in stampeding the camp.

Too-hul-hul-sote welcomed the diversion and incited the men with all the power he possessed. Every voice was for war, resistance to unjust decree, vengeance upon the white men. When Joseph reached his camp he found his band was committed to war against the United States. Hostilities had begun. He protested, but in vain. Matters had gone too far. From his point of view there was nothing left for him but to cast in his lot with the rest. Joseph had not provoked the outbreak. He had done his best to keep the peace: but now the outbreak had come he would do his part to make it formidable.

Joseph was at this time about thirty-seven years old. The Nez Percés had been at peace with everybody for years. Joseph had done no fighting whatsoever. What his capacities as a soldier were no one knew. The first test came quickly. Messengers from Mount Idaho were sent speeding to Fort Lapwai with the news of the murder of the settlers and piteous appeals for help. General Howard acted with commendable promptness. There were two skeleton troops of the First Cavalry at the post. The garrison numbered a little over one hundred and twenty men. Ninety of them, under Captains Perry and Trimble, with Lieutenant Parnell of the First Cavalry and Lieutenant Theller of the Twenty-first Infantry, were dispatched to protect the settlers. Nobody believed that the Indians would fight and it was expected that Perry's force would be adequate to secure the criminals and bring the rest to the reservation. Nevertheless, to be prepared for any contingency, Howard ordered an immediate concentration of the available troops in his Department at Fort Lapwai. It was well that he did so.

Perry marched rapidly, making eighty miles in about thirty hours over execrable country for the most part. He was joined by ten volunteers from Grangeville, and on the r 7th of June, very early in the morning, came in contact with Joseph in White Bird Canon. So soon as Joseph recognized that hostilities were inevitable, he had concentrated his and White Bird's bands on the banks of the Salmon River, a tortuous torrential stream, just where White Bird Creek empties into it.

The country is mountainous and broken. Some distance back from the river there is a high rugged tableland. The tributaries of the river take their rise in this table-land and run through precipitous and gloomy canons until they reach the valley. The canon, at first very narrow, grew wider as it approached the river several miles below. Between the entrance of the canon and the bank of the river was a stretch of rolling ground several hundred yards in width. The entrance was covered by buttes and rocky ravines, forming a natural defense. At intervals on either side of the canon extended lateral canons, short and steep, but through which the soldiers, if hard pressed, might escape to the upper levels. The banks of the rushing brook, the White

Source: Northwestern Fights and Fighters

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