The exodus of the Nez Perces back into the United States from Canada began in the late spring of 1878. Many people thought they could quietly go back to the agency at Lapwai and there live with their Lapwai relatives. The first departees left in June, after warm weather had arrived. One party numbered seven warriors. Another consisted of four men and a woman. Another, probably the largest body of returnees, comprised at least twenty-four tribesmen led by Wottolen and including Yellow Wolf, Peopeo Tholekt, Black Eagle, and Joseph's daughter, Kapkap Ponmi. Perhaps unaware of the fate of Joseph's followers, this group journeyed south through Montana Territory, the men stealing horses and killing cattle to sustain them. They encountered both enemy tribesmen and settlers on their way. [85] At a point below Philipsburg, the warriors confronted three placer miners and, primarily for food, killed them before proceeding into Idaho. Rumors spread that these Nez Perces intended to join the Flatheads in all-out warfare, causing some settlers to congregate in makeshift defenses. Meanwhile, the party of seven men that had left Canada earlier was captured and confined in the Fort Lapwai guard house as "prisoners of war." The other small party had gone to the country of the Pend d'Oreilles. [86] On July 15, a detachment of mounted infantrymen under First Lieutenant Thomas S. Wallace operating out of Fort Missoula pursued a party of Nez Perce refugees heading home and alleged to have committed murders in Montana. The troops caught up with them on the Middle Fork of the Clearwater River. In the skirmishing that ensued, Wallace's men supposedly killed six Nez Perces and wounded three (neither sex nor age was reported), and captured thirty-one horses and mules and killed twenty-three others. [87]

One returning Nez Perce woman named Lucy told Captain William Falck, Second Infantry, something of her party's struggle to join the Umatillas, with whom they had planned to live:

They left Sitting Bull's camp about the 20th of June; in ten days they struck Milk River in a southwesterly direction from the camp, and in five days thereafter the Rocky Mountains. They came through the Blackfeet country and saw no whites until they reached Bitter Root Mountains; thence they came in by the Elk City trail. . . . When in the Bitter Root Valley the women were left in charge of two men, with directions to take the Elk City trail, while the men were to take the Lo Lo trail, but on the following day the women overtook the men and found the latter in possession of a large and fine band of horses and mules. They went in camp about 90 miles from Elk City, and while resting there the following day were overtaken in the afternoon by a party of thirty white men, who attacked them and fought them at long range until evening. The white men were successful in capturing all of the horses and mules, including the horses and saddles of the entire party, excepting six on which they mounted the squaws, the men marching until they reached the reservation, where they again provided themselves with mounts by stealing from Kamiah Indians. In this fight the squaw says one white man was killed and no Indians. The entire party camped near Clear Creek; when James Lawyer's first party [sent out from the agency] found them they all refused to surrender, and declared their determination to join the Snakes. During the night five squaws escaped and surrendered to Lawyer. Three women and children are still left with the party, who are probably gone to the Salmon River, there to open some caches left by their people last year, containing money, blankets, provisions, &c. [88]

By mid-August 1878, fourteen Nez Perce men, including Yellow Wolf, had been incarcerated in the post guard house at Fort Lapwai, the women and children allowed to roam free at Kamiah. Most of these people were later sent to the Indian Territory to join Joseph. Three others, Wottolen, Black Eagle, and a Bannock Indian who had traveled with the party, decided to return to Canada and live with the Sioux. [89]

While these events were unfolding, the U.S. government initiated a formal attempt to bring the Nez Perce refugees back to American soil for imprisonment with Joseph's people at Fort Leavenworth. To facilitate talks with their kinsmen in Canada, General Terry sent three of the people from Kansas—Yellow Bull, Huis Kute, and Estoweaz—with the celebrated scout and interpreter, Benjamin H. Clark, to Fort Buford and instructed Colonel Miles to undertake arrangements for their passage onto British soil. [90] "If the Nez Perces . . . come over and surrender," he told Miles, "they should be brought to Buford, there to await further orders . . . for their transfer to their own people at Leavenworth." [91] At Fort Keogh, Miles selected his aide, Lieutenant George W. Baird, who had been wounded at Bear's Paw, to lead the delegation into Canada and, "with the consent of the Canadian authorities, to return the Nez Perces [sic] Indians to their tribe, should they desire to do so." [92] Armed with an introductory letter, Baird and his party crossed the international boundary on June 15 to consult with the North-West Mounted Police and the Nez Perces. Christopher Gilson, an interpreter who could converse in the Nee-Me-Poo language, joined the party in Canada. On the twenty-second, Commissioner James F. Macleod wrote Baird acknowledging that that officer was only to take charge of the Nez Perces if they agreed to return to the United States on assurance that they would be granted "the same terms as were granted those captured at the 'Bear Paw' by General Miles." [93] For fear of inciting the Sioux by their presence, Baird, Clark, and Gilson were denied the opportunity of going to the Nez Perce camp, and only the three Nez Perces "captured at the battle of 'Bear Paw,'" along with Assistant Commissioner Irvine, arranged to speak with White Bird. [94] Eventually, however, Irvine convinced White Bird to come to Fort Walsh and talk directly to Baird, and on July 1 and 2 the delegation confronted the veteran Nee-Me-Poo leader and seven of his people in the presence of Macleod and Irvine.

At the opening of the meeting July 1, Baird lied outright to White Bird, extending to the chief the likelihood that he and his people would be allowed to return to their Idaho homeland, although he knew that the opposite was true. In his opening comments Baird said:

If you, on this side of the line, wish to go to Joseph, you will be treated just as well and have the same protection as Joseph and his people. Joseph and his Indians will be put on a good Reservation, and have an opportunity to live comfortably. . . . The Great Father wrote to General Miles to ask him what he thought about sending Joseph back to his old home. General Miles told him he thought they ought to go back to their old home and be protected there. If you here go back to Joseph, you will be with him, and it may be at your old home. Joseph and the Nez Perces have a great many friends among the Americans, and they tell the Great Father that they ought to go back to their old home. . . . The Americans are your friends, and want you to go back to your old home, and if you don't, you will go to some other good Reservation.

On Tuesday, the three people from Joseph spoke to the group, mainly to affirm the surrender agreement, although one of them, Huis Kute, cast a dubious prognosis on an anticipated return to Idaho while seemingly negating what Baird had told them: "Joseph thinks to-day that, because General Miles promised him he would go back to his own country, he will go, he and his people. Joseph does not want to go further south, because it is not healthy; his people die even at Leavenworth." Attempting to reconcile the remarks, Baird said:

If White Bird and the Nez Perces, who are here, will go over and join Joseph, there is a very good prospect that they will go back [to Idaho]; but if White Bird and his people stay here, there is not a good prospect that Joseph and his people will go back, and I will tell you why: The Great Father may say, "White Bird and his people are living with my enemies, the Sioux, and as long as they live with my enemies I don't want Joseph and his people to go back to their old home."

To this White Bird responded:

For my part, I want Joseph to come back to our [old] part of the country. I don't wish to stop [stay] with the Sioux. If Joseph comes back to our part of the country, to a good Reservation, I will join him. I don't like the Sioux, and don't want to stop with them. I don't care for the Sioux; I just camp there to pass the time. My heart is very good, there is not a bit of bad in it.

At that juncture, Commissioner Macleod pointed out to White Bird that "this is a very kind and generous offer on behalf of the President, and if you do not accept it now it may never occur again."

That afternoon the meeting reconvened. White Bird told the members that he had counseled with his people and that he had decided he would not go. Lieutenant Baird and Macleod appealed to the other Nez Perces to decide for themselves if they wanted to return. Baird told them that if they returned one at a time they would be "arrested as hostile Indians." Again he held out the likelihood that they would be returned to Idaho, and now he made Joseph's future contingent on their decision: "I think you ought to go because if you go now you have a good chance to go to your old home, but if you don't, you will not have a good chance of going, or Joseph either." Macleod then asked, "Do any of you want to say anything? When White Bird spoke, he spoke for himself; now I want to hear from the others whether they will accept the kind offer of the American Government." "You know what I said," interjected White Bird. "Yes," said McLeod. "You spoke for yourself; now I want to hear the others." White Bird responded: "What I said, I said for all my people." Later that evening, White Bird delivered his final word on the matter: "We will not go." [95]

According to Duncan MacDonald, a mixed-blood of Scottish and Nez Perce ancestry who was engaged as an interpreter at the conference, White Bird had with him in Canada thirty-two lodges inhabited by as many as 120 people. Years later, MacDonald recalled that at the dramatic climax White Bird rose to his feet, pointed his finger at Baird, and told him: "I want you to understand what I am saying. You go back and bring Chief Joseph to Idaho. I will know it. I will hear of it. Do this, and I promise to surrender." [96] (This, however, is not verified in the Canadian transcript of the proceedings.) MacDonald quoted White Bird as saying that those who had expressed a willingness to return to the United States (and, in fact, had left in June) were not his followers and belonged to another band. He acknowledged, however, that some of his people "are deserting me; they do so when I am sound asleep in my bed; they run off at night, and if these men commit depredations, I am not to blame." He affirmed that if the government sent Joseph back to Idaho, " I will at once go back and make peace." [97]