“The invasion of this broad realm by miners and settlers forced upon the government its policy of framing a new treaty with the Indians for the purpose of confining them to two or three reservations. At a conference held at Lapwai in 1873, between the various Indian chiefs and representatives of the government, Joseph refused to go upon either the Nez Perces reservation in Idaho or the Umatilla reservation in Oregon. This being reported to the secretary of the interior, an order was issued that Joseph’s band should be permitted to remain in the Wallowa valley during the summer and autumn, and later the President set aside the Wallowa and Imnaha valleys for Joseph and his non-treaty Indians.
“Thus matters drifted until 1875, when, under pressure from the settlers, the President rescinded his order, and another commission was appointed to negotiate with Joseph and his band. Joseph haughtily replied that he had not come to talk about land; the maker of the earth had not partitioned it off, and man should not; the earth was his mother, sacred to his affections, and too precious to be sold. He did not wish to learn farming, but to live upon such fruits as the earth produced for him without effort. (From these principles Joseph has never departed. To this day (1898) he and his little band on the Colville reservation refuse to take up the arts of peace. They hunt and fish, and dwell in tepees.)
“The government replied that unless in a reasonable time Joseph consented to be removed he should be forcibly taken with his people and given lands on the reservation. He answered this by taking to the warpath. Joseph, Whitebird and Looking Glass gathered their forces on Cottonwood creek, sixty-five miles from Lewiston, ostensibly to comply with the government’s command, but really in preparation for the fierce war that followed.
“Their first victims were four white men, killed on White Bird creek. On June 14, 1877, while playing cards, they were surprised by a band of hostiles.”
Joseph’s fighting force was about five hundred. General O. O. Howard took the field with seven hundred men and officers. Several skirmishes were fought, in which Joseph was badly beaten, although about fifty of Howard’s men were killed. Finally, with his men, followed by many women and children, he crossed into Montana with Howard in pursuit. General Gibbon, then located at Fort Shaw, Montana, was notified of Joseph’s movements, and at once, with about 150 men, crossed the main range of the Rockies, by going over the “Cadott Pass,” making the march in two days. His force was infantry and a few were mounted. About thirty citizens joined him from the Bitter Root valley.
Gibbon attacked Joseph on August 9th in the Big Hole valley in Beaverhead county, and had a hard fought and bloody engagement, lasting several hours. When the battle was nearly ended, stray bullets kept coming and killed several of Gibbon’s men before any one could tell where they came from. Finally one of the soldiers discovered that a redskin had climbed and fortified himself in a fork of a large tree and about thirty feet from the ground. A fatal shot was sent and “he fell like a dead squirrel,” as one of the men said. The Indians retreated, leaving eighty-nine dead. Gibbon lost twenty-nine killed and forty wounded. Bostwick, the interpreter, who was at Gibbon’s office, and of whom I have made mention in [my letter], “The Indians Stealing My Horses,” was one of the killed.
Gibbon was burying the dead when Howard came up. Joseph knew that Howard must be near, and perhaps this saved Gibbon from meeting the same fate as Custer, for the Indians outnumbered him more than three to one.
A magnificent monument has been erected on this sacred ground in memory of those who crossed the main range of the Rockies, and, but a few days later, went down “through the valley of the shadow of death” for the sake of generations to come.
After the battle Joseph crossed into Idaho, killing many settlers on the way, for now all the Indians were in a rage. It appears that he hardly knew where to go; finally he took to the mountains and into the National Park. Here he met some tourists, and two of them, Charles Kenk and Richard Detrick, were killed by his warriors, while at the same time an Indian named Charley was doing all in his power to pacify the other Indians; at this juncture Joseph interfered and forbade his men to harm any more of them. But they were all taken as prisoners for several days. The women who were in the party were treated with the greatest respect, for which Joseph received great praise through the Eastern press as well as that of the West. Howard was still on their path, and Joseph knew it, and knew that his only hope was to get to Canada. From the National Park he went due north as near as the lay of the country would permit, killing several settlers and destroying property as he went. This time he came in contact with Colonel Sturgis, but made his escape.
In the latter part of September news came to Fort Benton that the Nez Perces were heading to cross the Missouri river and on to Canada. Knowing that there were but few people at the several trading posts further down the river, Major Elges, who was in command at Fort Benton, sent what men he could spare down the river in a Mackinaw boat, while he and Colonel J. J. Donnelly, with thirty-five mounted citizens, with rifles and belts full of cartridges, crossed the country. Many of them were picked marksmen, “old prairie men,” who would just as soon go into a fight as eat a Christmas dinner. On their way they learned that Joseph was heading for Cow island. On their arrival there they found that the Indians had crossed the river and had a fight with a small party of men that were guarding some goods that had been taken off a steamboat and piled on the levee. Joseph took some of the goods and burned the balance. But this brave little party, who were intrenched, fought like demons, and, although one was killed and three of them wounded, they stood off the enemy and held their fort. Judge Foley, now of the city of Belt, was one of them. About the same time Joseph was having a fight with O. G. Cooper, Frank Farmer and other freighters, who were in camp on Cow creek, a few miles further north, when he had already robbed and was burning their wagons. Without hesitation, the Benton party took a hand in the fight, in which E. B. Richardson (Bradley) was killed. Colonel Donnelly, who had been an officer in the Civil War, borrowed a small boat from Captain McGarry, of the steamer “Benton,” and sent two men with a dispatch to General Miles, who was in camp several miles down and on the south side of the river. Runners were sent by Major Elges on the north side to direct Miles the way the Indians had gone. The balance of the party were watching the course of the Indians, which was to the Bear Paw mountains. Miles immediately crossed to the north side on the steamer that brought his command up the river. Afterwards Miles met Donnelly, thanked him for the dispatch and thanked the citizens for what they had done.