Nez Perce Summer, 1877

Cover

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Reasons

Eruption and White Bird Canyon

Looking Glass's Camp and Cottonwood

Clearwater

Kamiah, Weippe, and Fort Fizzle

Bitterroot and the Big Hole

Camas Meadows

The National Park

Canyon Creek

Cow Island and Cow Creek Canyon

Yellowstone Command

Bear's Paw: Attack and Defense

Bear's Paw: Siege and Surrender

Consequences

Epilogue

Appendix A

Appendix B

Bibliography

Nez Perce Summer, 1877 Chapter 13: Bear's Paw: Siege and Surrender

Chapter 13:
Bear's Paw: Siege and Surrender (continued)

Just at dusk, riders appeared from the south. They proved to be General Howard with two aides and an escort of twenty-one men, besides several scouts, one white interpreter, and two elderly Nez Perce men. [82] After leaving Sturgis with the main force at Carroll and ascending aboard the Benton to Cow Island with part of his foot troops, Howard had set out on October 3 on the trail with only this small party, which included the general's son, Lieutenant Guy Howard, and Lieutenant Charles E. S. Wood, anxiously intent on finding Miles. Scout Redington wrote of the Nez Perces, who but recently had raided the stores at Cow Island, that "for many miles up Cow Creek and Bull Creek we could trail them by the packages of finecut tobacco, beans and coffee that had trickled and dropped off their packs." [83] During the afternoon of the fourth, Howard's group met two men carrying dispatches from Sturgis to Miles and first learned of the battle then underway. (Unknown to Howard, Colonel Sturgis, meanwhile, had on October 2 received Miles's dispatch of the thirtieth announcing the battle, mobilized his troops, and crossed the Missouri on the steamers Meade and Silver City. [84] Pushing north with ten days' rations, Sturgis had covered thirty miles to the base of the Little Rocky Mountains by evening, October 4. [85]) Soon after, Howard's party crested the divide south of the battlefield and saw campfires in the growing twilight. A few bullets from the Nez Perce position whistling past their heads momentarily caused Howard to think that his party was mistakenly under attack by the pickets. Then Miles appeared, saying, "We have the Indians corralled down yonder," and with an escort conducted them forward. [86]

At a meeting that evening, Howard told Miles that he had no wish to assume command and that the colonel would be free to complete the work he had started. That view probably brought Miles certain relief, knowing that his imminent victory over the Nez Perces and whatever laurels and promotional possibilities it might entail remained secure. [87] Because the end of the siege did not appear immediately at hand, however, and because the Sitting Bull factor remained, Howard prepared dispatches directing reinforcements ahead from his command. Unaware of Sturgis's movement north, he also sent word directing Major Mason (who was with Sturgis) to supervise the transport of the supplies at Cow Island and Carroll to the mouth of Little Rocky Creek on the Missouri, and there to await Miles's wagon train, which would be bringing the wounded from the battlefield for conveyance to Fort Buford on the Benton along with Captain Miller's artillerymen. [88] Finally, Howard suggested using his two Nez Perces, Jokais (Lazy), known as Captain John, and Meopkowit (Baby, or Know Nothing), known as Old George, [89] both with daughters among the besieged people, to try to induce their surrender, an idea that Miles supported. Howard then prepared a status report for General McDowell in San Francisco, complimentarily concluding that Miles's "successful march . . . of three hundred miles could not be excelled in quickness of conception and promptitude of execution." [90]

Friday, October 5 arrived "a beautiful morning." [91] The bombardment of the Nez Perce camp, which had gone on at intervals all during the night, finally began to subside. Doctors Tilton and Gardner had finished performing three amputations at the hospital, [92] and Lieutenant Guy Howard at his father's direction sent a message to Sturgis telling him to bring along the howitzer, as it was "in special demand here." (In fact, Sturgis had left the gun behind because the horses were too weak to carry it.) [93] Then, at 8:00 a.m., all firing ceased. [94] The two Nez Perces who had come with Howard, Captain John and Old George, stepped forward under a white flag, descended to the Snake Creek bottom, and crossed into the Nez Perce position. Hours passed. The two returned, reported to Miles and Howard, and then went back to the Nez Perces. [95] "They were getting very tired of the siege," related Tilton. "They report that one shell killed three, and wounded others. [96] They had sent runners to the Assiniboines, who had been killed. The soldiers fired at them; citizens fired at them; and Indians fired at them. They were ready to surrender." [97]

In the space since Howard's arrival, Joseph had learned of the presence of Arthur Chapman, the interpreter who was his friend. "We could now talk understandingly," he remembered. [98] But the major face-to-face consultations involved the two Nez Perces Howard had brought with him. Reminiscent accounts of the talks in the camp between the besieged and Captain John and Old George were given by Yellow Wolf and Tom Hill, both of whom were present. Perhaps at about 9:00 a.m., [99] Captain John and Old George, who had attached themselves to Howard's army in an effort to find and retrieve their children and who had been primed by Howard through Chapman, entered the Nez Perces lines to mixed greetings. White Bull, who had wanted to kill Lieutenant Jerome, also wanted to kill these men, but was ordered away from them. "We see your sons and relations lying dead, but we are glad to shake hands with you today," said Old George. Captain John said that Howard had sent word that the people need not be afraid. Then they told them that Howard's army was but a day behind, that a surrender would bring no executions, and that the people would be treated well and given blankets and food. Probably, too, the two Nez Perces told the leaders that the people would be sent to the Lapwai Reservation, as this was what Miles and Howard believed was expected. [100]

At Joseph's direction, the two emissaries passed back to the soldier's lines. While they were gone, the men counciled over the proposal. Some were inclined to believe that the leaders, notably Joseph, would be hanged. Others wanted assurances that they would be compensated for the property taken from them before the warfare had erupted. Yellow Wolf remembered seeing General Howard standing in the distance and calling to the Nez Perces. Then Captain John and Old George returned with a message from Miles asking to speak directly to Joseph. The leaders counciled again and decided that Joseph should go forward. [101] All realized that the individual bands could decide unilaterally and might not act together, and, moreover, that each individual was free to choose his or her own course. [102] Tom Hill said that Joseph asked him to accompany him, saying that to quit fighting "is the best thing we can do." [103] Captain John and Old George returned to the army command, this time likely carrying the reply from Joseph that has since defined Bear's Paw and the conclusion of the Nez Perce War while assuring the stature of Chief Joseph in history and in legend. [104] When the two emissaries, at Joseph's direction, passed back to the soldiers' line, Captain John, "with tears in his eyes," relayed (and possibly paraphrased)—through Chapman—Joseph's response to Howard, an oral report on the Nez Perces' stricken condition, in essence, that became known as Joseph's surrender speech. [105] As transcribed in pencil by Lieutenant Wood, Howard's adjutant, the historic message read:

Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Tu-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. [106]

Halfway between the lines, Joseph, with Tom Hill and some other Nez Perces, all apparently unidentified, met with Miles and Howard and Chapman. "I remember well the council held, in a circle on the grass, in full view of the camp," wrote Kelly. [107] At this meeting, the proceedings of which were evidently not transcribed, Joseph indicated his intention of surrendering his own band and himself, leaving to others to decide the respective fates of the other Nee-Me-Poo. He later related that "General Miles said to me in plain words, 'If you will come out and give up your arms, I will spare your lives and send you to your reservation.'" [108] White Bird did not attend, but reportedly concurred with Joseph's decision to surrender, sending word that "What Joseph does is all right; I have nothing to say." [109] Yellow Wolf, who apparently was not present at this council, mentioned some minor perturbation of Howard and said that, after the officers promised to provide food and supplies to the people, the leaders and commanders shook hands all around. Joseph said, "Now we understand these words, and will go with General Miles." At 11:00 a.m., October 5, Joseph's negotiated surrender was thus complete. [110]

At midafternoon, in formal consummation of the agreement, Joseph mounted a pony and, closely surrounded on either side by five men afoot who clung to his person and spoke softly yet intently to him, slowly rode out of the Nez Perce entrenchments. In appearance, according to Wood,

His scalp-lock was tied with otter fur. The rest of his hair hung in a thick plait on each side of his head. He wore buckskin leggings and a gray woolen shawl, through which were the marks of four or five bullets. . . . His forehead and wrist were also scratched by bullets. [111]

His hands were crossed on the pommel of his saddle, his Winchester carbine straddling his knees, and his head hanging down. Contemporary observers said that Joseph rode up a hill. Quite logically, he passed across the creek bottom to the west side of the bluff opposite the south end of the camp, then ascended the slightly rising tableland adjoining the west side of the coulee through which Carter's assault party had come on September 30. This rise is between the south bluff and that adjacent on the west where the Hotchkiss gun stood. The site, while not far from that presently designated for the formal surrender, is furthermore shielded from known warrior positions to the northwest and would have been within the protective encirclement of the army line situated back from the edges of the bluffs. [112] Probably there, Miles and Howard stood waiting to receive him. [113] It was 2:20 p.m., according to Lieutenant Wood. [114] On his approach, Joseph sat upright, then gracefully dismounted before the senior officers, who were accompanied by Lieutenants Wood, Long, and Howard, besides the interpreter, Arthur Chapman, and an unidentified enlisted orderly. Some distance away, a courier stood by his horse, bridle in hand. [115] The other warriors and headmen fell back as Joseph raised his head, walked forward, and "with an impulsive gesture" extended his Winchester carbine to General Howard. [116] The general, true to his word, stepped back and motioned the Nez Perce leader over to Miles, who received the gun. [117] It is not certain if he uttered any statement, although Howard told a newspaperman that Joseph had said, doubtless in his own language: "From where the sun stands, forever and ever, I will never fight again." [118] Wood remembered: "Those present shook hands with Joseph, whose worn and anxious face lighted with a sad smile as silently he took each offered hand. Presently turning away, he walked to the tent provided for him." Howard and Miles, riding on either side, accompanied Joseph to the rear, where Lieutenant Wood took charge of him. [119] The chief was described as "in great distress" over the whereabouts of his daughter, who had escaped at the time of the initial attack. "He was afraid she would perish from the cold, as she had on very little clothing at the time," related Tilton. [120] Then, almost randomly, probably as they concluded that capitulation was the only alternative, other groups of Nez Perces came filing out of the pits to turn in their weapons in an impromptu demonstration that lasted until dusk. Wrote a witness: "The other chiefs and their companions who had followed Joseph into the camp performed the same ceremony. . . . In reversing their weapons [they] gave a significance to the act easily appreciated by the veterans who were silent witnesses of it." [121]

Heinmot Tooyalakekt, or Chief Joseph, was photographed by John H. Fouch at Tongue River Cantonment shortly after the arrival of the Nez Perce prisoners on October 23, three weeks following the surrender at Bear's Paw battlefield. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

During the remainder of the day, sixty-seven warriors and an unspecified number of noncombatants had turned themselves in. Besides Nez Perces, they included the Palouses of Husis Kute. Howard recalled the "forlorn procession" as "covered with dirt, their clothing was torn, and their ponies, such as they were, were thin and lame." [122] By dark, not all of the people ensconced in the earthworks had committed to surrender, and the military lines were maintained through the night. [123] Nonetheless, that evening Miles prepared a dispatch for delivery to General Terry:

We have had our usual success. We made a very direct and rapid march across the country, and after a severe engagement, and being kept under fire for three [sic] days, the hostile camp of Nez Perces, under Chief Joseph, surrendered at two o'clock to-day. [124]

Not all of the people chose to follow Joseph's course, however. At least seventy of the tribesmen had managed to escape Miles's investment on September 30 in the opening moments of the attack. Most of them had eluded the Second Cavalry pursuit and continued north toward the British possessions. And during the course of the siege, under the cover of darkness other bodies of tribesmen, probably numbering as many as one hundred—sometimes including whole families—had managed to penetrate the military cordon and escape. Now, in the hours following Joseph's surrender, White Bird and many other people chose to attempt to escape and drive for Canada and what they hoped would be freedom and a reunion with those friends and relatives who had gotten away earlier. [125] At about 9:00 p.m., aided by darkness, White Bird's party, perhaps as many as fifty people, quietly made its way north along the Snake Creek bottom, somehow eluding the attention of the army pickets, and headed toward Milk River and beyond. [126] The next morning, the chief not having appeared, Howard and Miles visited the Nez Perce entrenchments to find him and there learned of his departure. [127] Howard, oblivious to the nature of Nee-Me-Poo societal dynamics, considered White Bird's escape, "after the terms of surrender had been agreed upon," a violation of the accord. [128] As Yellow Wolf later explained, "All who wanted to surrender took their guns to General Miles and gave them up. Those who did not want to surrender, kept their guns. The surrender was just for those who did not longer want to fight. Joseph spoke only for his own band, what they wanted to do." [129]

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