Further on, just as they were going into camp for their noonday meal, the freighters saw an Indian some distance ahead turn out of the road and disappear among the rocks. A couple of hours later, before resuming their march, a few of the freighters made a cautious search and found the Indian dead from thirst. This was the first of several dead Indians found by the freighters, all of whom had died in the same manner. The hot August weather had dried up the few streams between the scene of the Hayden tragedy and the Indians’ next halting place, Hole-in-the-Rock. Their whiskey orgy of the previous night had left them in bad shape for a long, dry march and some of the weaker of them perished by the way.
It is but a few miles from Highbridge to the Montana line, and the fleeing Nez Perces circled on toward Bozeman, in that state, without perpetrating any more outrages in Idaho.
In June of this same year, 1877, a band of Bannock Indians from Fort Hall, influenced probably by the action of the Nez Perces in refusing to be restricted by the terms of treaties, left their reservation and proceeded toward Boise. The band was well armed and well mounted. When word reached Boise that these Indians were in camp, less than thirty miles away, the town was greatly alarmed and a body of volunteers, under Captain R. Robbins, was quickly equipped for action.
A small detachment of men was sent to interview the Bannocks, with instructions to bring the band, or at least the chiefs, into Boise to have a talk with the governor. The embassy returned the following morning, June 20th, bringing with them thirty or forty stalwart Bannock warriors. They created a sensation as they rode double file through the main street of the city to the governor’s office. Here they were introduced to the governor and several of the leading men of Boise, with whom they held a long peace conference. In the end it was agreed that the people of Boise should provide the Indians with provisions and accommodations for their horses until the following day, and give them a few hundred pounds of flour and meat, beside certain amounts of sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco, etc., the Bannocks for their part undertaking to return peaceably to their reservation.
Mr. John Hailey, who was detailed by the governor to see that the compact was carried out, has given us the following account of their departure:
“Early the next morning, with the assistance of a few of our good boys, we gathered up all these contributions and checked up to see if they filled the agreement. Everything was satisfactory, we helped them to pack up, and then tried to impress on them, first, that we had kept and fulfilled our part of the agreement, and second, that they must not fail to fulfill their part of the agreement. They seemed to realize the importance of fulfilling their part, so we bade them a good-bye, wishing them a speedy and safe journey to their home on the Fort Hall reservation. They went and kept their part of the agreement for this year, 1877, but in 1878 they gave us trouble.”
The trouble to which Mr. Hailey refers was the Bannock Indian war, which we will take up in the next chapter.