Big Hole National Battlefield Administrative History

Chapter Five:
"At Long Last": Public Law 88-24

Park Service officials who sought to acquire the additional land and funding assumed the challenge of presenting the Nez Perce people and their story as worthy of the proposed memorialization. Their careful effort to clarify the tragic cost of westward expansion (beyond a "regrettable footnote to an otherwise happy story") contradicted the patriotic fervor that defined Park Service interpretive efforts and public response to Custer Battlefield. [18] Their cause was aided by the sympathy that Anglo-Americans had long accorded the Nez Perce and by the ease with which the Nez Perce could be categorized as "good" Indians, "civilized," and historically respectful of America's move West. As described by Park Service officials in written testimony to Congress, the Big Hole Battlefield Siege Area and historic War Department monument "rightly served" as testimony to the "high military qualities" of the Frontier Army. Park Service control of the Nez Perce Encampment Area, Howitzer Capture Site, and Twin Trees simply "expanded" the tribute to include the military skill of the Nez Perce and expanded the interpretive potential to include "white encroachment on the Nez Perce lands and a continuing series of mistreatments of the Indians." One official enthusiastically compared the epic Nez Perce flight with Xenophon's March of the Ten Thousand in the Persian wars of antiquity. Chief Joseph was lauded as a humane man "without the ferocity and savagery expected of Indian leaders of his time," a remarkable military strategist, and the "highest type of Indian that General Nelson A. Miles had ever known." [19]

On May 17, 1963, the 88^th Congress approved Public Law 88-24, authorizing the addition of 160 acres of national forest land and 295.6 acres of private land to the monument boundaries. [20] The private land included the visitor center building site on Ruby Bench, right-of-way for an access road to the new alignment of State Highway 43, and the Encampment Area as defined by the McWhorter survey and subsequent investigations. Shown through "recent" studies to be significantly associated with the battle, the acreage also included the Horse Pasture/Twin Trees Area and the Howitzer Capture Site, both on national forest land. The Forest Service had agreed to this transfer and the land would be acquired at no cost. (This degree of cooperation between two agencies that often competed for control of federal lands runs through the history of Big Hole National Battlefield. In September 1963, Garrison thanked Region I Regional Forester Boyd L. Rasmussen and commended his staff: "a hearty thanks to you for your helpfulness in the matter of the land for Big Hole National Battlefield. . . . Over the years, the Forest Service has been mighty helpful and constructive with Big Hole matters and we are indeed grateful for this. We find continuing cooperative assistance from all of your men.") [21] The bill also redesignated the monument a national battlefield, a title more descriptive of the historic events and in keeping with NPS policy to designate uniform and appropriate administrative titles to units in the national park system (P.L. 88-24). Finally, it laid the groundwork for concurrent jurisdiction with the state of Montana over petty offenders in the national monument area (see Appendix A). [22]

Upon passage of the Big Hole expansion bill, a jubilant Jack Williams (recently transferred to Aztec National Monument) wrote local historian Thain White:

[I] imagine you are aware of the good news regarding Big Hole? It became Big Hole National Battlefield on May 17. One of five such areas in the country. Now, at long last, there is within the boundaries the site of the Nez Perce camp (McWhorter can now rest in peace); the Twin Trees; and the howitzer capture site. A couple of years should see it really nice I do believe with a good museum and so forth. [23]

Williams' jubilation was premature. The National Park Service did not secure legal title to the development site until 1966 and did not secure title to the Encampment Area until 1972.