Nez Perce –
[Summary Information on Reasons for
Attack on
Revised 6 February 2010 (Clarified Canyon Creek Battle deaths/ added site reference)
Chief
Joseph, leader of the “non-treaty” Nez Perce Indian Tribe, earned
the respect of General Nelson A. Miles (Bear Coat), who finally halted their
march north to
The Treaties of 1855, 1861. and 1863 reduced the Nez Perce land holdings in
Captain Rawn of
Ignoring Sitting Bull’s threatened return, Col. Sturgis in the
Mussellshell area was initially fooled by a false march by Chief Joseph, who then
marched down the Clark’s Fork of the
The main body of Nez Perce Indians, fleeing from the army attack at Cottonwood
Canyon (north of Laurel), had crossed over the mountains as they headed north
and saw a stagecoach heading toward the Canyon Creek stop. They attacked it
when it reached the Bela Brockway farm.
[This was 13-14 September 1877.]
Ed Forest was handling the stage, and Hank Eastman was the driver. The
stagecoach occupants, two women and an Englishman (dentist), ran for cover in a
beaver island in the Yellowstone River, thus escaping certain death. The
dentist left his belongings behind as he fled to safety. The Indians opened his
satchel, and scattered his shiny dental tools about the area. They went through
the mail and dumped it into a dry well. The Indians did not spot Ed Forest and
Bela Brockway, but they had two dogs that might bark and give their position
away. Ed Forest tried to cut the dog’s throats, but one got away. Seeing
the dogs, the Indians danced, jumped and hollered. They then took the stage and
drove it up to where the William
Heffner’s stone quarry [
Just before the attack at Canyon Creek was in
progress, all of the available white men in the Stillwater area
(Countryman’s Crossing & Stage Stop), and about 400 Crow Indians were
out trying to steal the extra horses the Nez Perce (squaws) had with the band
of Indians as they fled north. The squaws fought the Crows, but they were hit
and kicked. The Crows took the horses and passed through the tollgate with the
horses. Blackbeard, one of the Crow leaders was leading them. When ordered to
stop he refused saying “Nez Perce’s come. Horses many, Sweep
everything. Get on horse. Run for agency. Indians shoot.” Alice Reed (McCleary)
was managing the stage stop & store at the time. One of the men in the
store said “Blackbeard was a coffee-cooler, and that the Crows would rob
the store if she left.” Right behind the Crows were the army forces,
which were chasing the Nez Perce, and the store was left untouched. [Article
from Alice Reed, 1877 as she told her story to ID O’Donnell]
Some of the Nez Perce later on their flight north
stopped at a farmhouse in the area and asked for a meal. It was reported that
they put up their guns and showed signs of peace. After being fed they shot the
man & wife, and robbed the house. Perry McAdow, seeing the Indians approach
when they reached the Coulson area, hastily put up a barricade (breastworks) to
protect his sawmill, and it wasn’t damaged.
On September 29th, scouts located the Nez Perce route at the foot
of the Bear Paw Mountains, and the next day found their camp on Snake Creek.
They took the Indians by surprise, and captured 800 horses. Approximately 22
men on both sides were killed. Part of the camp escaped, but it consisted
mainly of women and children, who reached Canada. Miles troops were slowed by
the wounded and feared that Sitting Bull’s large band of warriors would
attack. However, the Sioux medicine man, learning that the troops were headed
by Bear Coat, retreated northward.
[Compiled for numerous historical accounts of the battle. By some twist of
fate, the two trappers killed at Canyon Creek (Junction with the Yellowstone
River on Joseph Cochran’s land) by the Nez Perce and buried in September
1877 at the graveyard north of Coulson (predecessor to Boothill), became
identified as two soldiers killed at the Canyon Creek battle site north of
Laurel. This mix-up still needs to be fully clarified, since three soldiers
were killed at the battle site, not two, and no record of there actual burial
in the Coulson area 15 miles away has been located. This is probably an error
in transcription since the trappers were also killed on Canyon Creek, but near
Coulson.]
Miles intended that the Nez Perce would be taken to the Tongue River until they could return to their reservation in Idaho, but the war department sent them to Missouri, much to the dissatisfaction of Chief Joseph. The Nez Perce was grossly wronged (according to Miles) in recommending “ample provisions be made for their civilization.” Miles describes Chief Joseph as “a man of more sagacity and intelligence than any other Indian I have ever met.”
A chapter in the Nez Perce, that is usually omitted from dialog or research is that Crow Scouts aided their escape through the local area.[2]
“””PRYOR
– Involvement of Mountain Crow scouts provides keys to a mysterious
informational gap in the 1877 flight of the Nez Perce.
Crow historian Elias Goes Ahead told a small group
Saturday at Plenty Coups State Park that “there’s a whole chapter
missing” in the Nez Perce journey from Washington state through Idaho and
Yellowstone Park to the eventual surrender of Chief Joseph and other survivors
at the Bear Paw Battle near Chinook, not far from the Canadian border.
Traditional historical details have been extremely
sketchy on the Nez Perce from their escape from Yellowstone Park through
Wyoming’s Sunlight Basin to their rediscovery at the Canyon Creek Battle
eight miles north of Laurel. He said Crows secretly helped the fleeing tribe
all the way from Sunlight Basin to the Little Snowies - and a few Mountain
Crows stayed with Chief Joseph’s band until the end, helping 150 or so
escape into Canada while the rest were surrounded by soldiers and cannon at
Bear Paw.
Mr. Goes Ahead said oral history among both Crow
and Nez Perce participants clearly show that Crow scouts attached to U.S. Army
commands fed information to the Nez Perce and created diversions that aided Nez
Perce escapes. Mountain Crow – as opposed to River Crow – families
even took in Nez Perce children to save them from the ardors of the flight and
fights.
Mountain Crows had allied with the Nez Perce since
the late 1700s and took on their hair and dress styles. Two Nez Perce chiefs,
Looking Glass and White Bird, were among the 40 lodges fighting on the side of
the Crows in an 1869 battle at the mouth of Pryor Creek against Sioux and
Cheyenne. Mr. Goes Ahead said scouts were even able to sneak Nez Perce into
Army camps where they were fed information and food.
“Bluecoat soldiers did not know it at the
time, but they were actually giving them (Nez Perce) rations, ammunition and
information” because soldiers couldn’t discern them from Mountain
Crows.
In addition to dodging U.S. forces able to use such
technology as telegraphy, Mr. Goes Ahead said, moving Nez Perce groups also had
to maneuver between camps of enemy Shoshones (in the present Bridger area) and
Cheyennes (around Forsyth). Near the Snowies, Nez Perce made off with horses
from a River Crow encampment.
“There’s still a lot of animosity
between the Crow and Nez Perce,” he said, because the pursued tribe had
hoped the Mountain Crows would join them in open combat. At a council near
present-day Billings, Crows realized they might help the Nez Perce escape, but
joining them openly would be a no-win situation.
Yet despite a recent effort by a Bear Paw Battle
Superintendent, Nez Perce tribal member Otis Two Moons, no peace council could
be organized.
After the Big Hole Battle in what now is
southwestern Montana, Mr. Goes Ahead said, the U.S. military signed about 60
Crow scouts out of the Livingston office. They kept disappearing, he said,
sometimes scouting on behalf of the Nez Perce. Eventually, the Army had only 20
Mountain Crow scouts and many of these were working as double agents.
Mr. Goes Ahead said the spoken histories of Crows
such as Plainfeather tell of the Mountain Crows’ duplicity on behalf of
their allies. Crow elder Plainfeather met with one of the last Nez Perce
survivors (Sam Tilden) a century after the incidents, he said, and their
recorded testimonies fill in the gaps.
“There’s a whole chapter
missing,” he said.
His research wasn’t presented publicly until
the year 2000, he said, and has not been published. For his part, Mr. Goes
Ahead has been working for the past seven years setting up the Arrow Creek
Battle (Crow vs. those who were to defeat Custer’s troops at Little
Bighorn shortly after) to National Battlefield Association status.
It would be the first battle between Native
American groups to achieve such status. “””
For additional reading about the Nez Perce, refer to a listing of periodicals.
[1] The trappers were buried on or near the location where they died. Later, after Boothill Cemetery was created, they were disinterred and re-buried in that cemetery.
[2] Elias Goes Ahead, Crow Historian, presented the details below from a talk he gave at Chief Plenty Coup’s State Park. Reported in the Outpost, August 5, 2004 (Page 7 reported by T J Giles)