"Thus," says General Sherman, "has terminated one of the most extraordinary Indian wars of which there is any record."
The Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise; they abstained from scalping, let captive women go free, did not commit indiscriminate murder of peaceful families, which is usual, and fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines and field fortifications.
Gen. Nelson A. Miles, perhaps the greatest living authority, as he is certainly one of our ablest generals and most successful Indian fighters, says in his report: "As these people have been hitherto loyal to the Government, and friends of the white race, from the time their country was first explored, and in their skilful campaign have spared hundreds of lives and thousands of dollars' worth of property, that they might have destroyed, and as they have been, in my opinion, grossly wronged in years past; have lost most of their ponies, property and everything except a small amount of clothing, I have the honor to recommend that ample provision be made for their civilization, and to enable them to become self-sustaining. They are sufficiently intelligent to appreciate the consideration which, in my opinion, is due them from the Government. The Nez Perces are the boldest men, and the best marksmen of any Indians I have encountered, and Chief Joseph is a man of more sagacity and intelligence than any Indian I have ever met. He counseled against the war, and against the usual atrocities practiced by Indians, and is far more humane than such leaders as Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. The campaign of the Nez Perces is a good illustration of what would be the result of bad faith or ill-treatment toward the large tribes of mountain Indians that occupy most of the Rocky Mountain range."
It must be understood that Joseph surrendered on honorable terms. General Miles said: "I acted on what I supposed was the original design of the Government to place these Indians on their own reservation, and so informed them, and also sent assurances to the war parties that were out and those who had escaped, that they would be taken to Tongue River and retained for a time, and sent across the mountains as soon as the weather permitted in the spring." The Indians understood also that they were to retain what stock they still had. General Howard also concurred in these conditions and gave orders to General Miles to send the Indians to his department in the spring, unless he received "instructions from higher authority."
The terms of this surrender were shamefully violated. Joseph and his band were taken first to Fort Lincoln. Then to Fort Leavenworth, afterward to the Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory. At Leavenworth they were placed between a lagoon and the river, the worst possible place for sanitary conditions that could have been selected, with no water but that of the "Big Muddy" to drink. All were affected by the poisonous malaria of the camp.
Joseph said, "Many of my people sickened and died, and we buried them in this strange land. I can not tell how much my heart suffered for my people while at Leavenworth. The Great Spirit Chief, who rules above, seemed to be looking some other way, and did not see what was being done to my people." Yet he is just and magnanimous enough to add in the same connection: "I believe General Miles would have kept his word if he could have done so. I do not blame him for what we have suffered since the surrender. I do not know who is to blame. We gave up all our horses, over eleven hundred, and all our saddles, over one hundred, and we have not heard from them since. Somehody has got our Horses."
As Helen Hunt Jackson well says in her "Century of Dishonor," "This narrative of Chief Joseph's is profoundly touching; a very Iliad of tragedy, of dignified and hopeless sorrow; and it stands supported by the official records of the Indian Bureau."
The Indian Commissioner, in his Annual Report for 1878, says: "After the arrival of Joseph and his band in Indian Territory, the bad effect of their location at Fort Leavenworth manifested itself in the prostration by sickness at one time of two hundred and sixty out of the four hundred and ten, and within a few months in the death of more than one-quarter of the entire number."
It is gratifying to record that General Miles left no stone unturned to have the conditions of the surrender respected. Some seven years later, when he had been promoted, he succeeded in having Chief Joseph and the remnant of his band returned to the neighborhood of their old home. Joseph and a few others were placed at the Colville Agency, in Washington, and the remainder were put with their people on Lapwai reservation.