1. Also given as Nimipu, Nimiipu, Numepo, Nu-me-poo, and Ne-mee-poo. The spelling, "Nee-Me-Poo," is subscribed to by the member offices of the Nez Perce (Nee-Me-Poo) National Historic Trail Advisory Council, i.e., the Department of Agriculture (Forest Service), the Department of the Interior (National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management), the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe of Washington, and the states of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. See Nez Perce . . . Trail Comprehensive Plan, 3. For the variety of spellings, as well as other names given the people by other tribes, see Swanton, Indian Tribes, 400-401; and Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, 2:67.

2. For further details of the physical setting of the Nez Perce homeland, see the following, from which the above description was drawn: Atwood, Physiographic Provinces, 408-14; Fenneman, Physiography of Western United States, 225, 237-39, 248-49; Thomson and Ballard, Geology and Gold . . . North Central Idaho, 12-17; Warren Wagner, A Geological Reconnaissance . . . Snake and Salmon Rivers, 1-3; Alfred Anderson, The Geology . . . Orofino, Idaho, 5-6; and Lindgren, Geological Reconnaissance, 59, 61. The area traditionally occupied by the Nez Perces approximates all or parts of the following modern counties: IdahoIdaho, Clearwater, Nez Perce, Adams, Latah, and Lewis; OregonWallowa, Baker, and Union; WashingtonAsotin, Garfield, and Columbia.

3. This overview of Nee-Me-Poo culture is drawn from the following sources: Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, 2:65-67, 519-20; Swanton, Indian Tribes, 400-403; Spinden, Nez Perce Indians, passim; McBeth, Nez Perces, passim; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 14-30; Josephy, Patriot Chiefs, 315, 317; Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 8-16; Walker, Conflict and Schism, 13, 16-17; Coale, "Ethnohistorical Sources"; Allan Smith, "Traditional Culture"; McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 295-300; and Otis Halfmoon, communication with author, Nez Perce National Historical Park, Spalding, Idaho, November 8, 1995, and April 23, 1996. See in particular the discussion of the term, "Nez Perce," in Thompson, Historic Resource Study, Spalding Area, 1-2.

In addition, for Nez Perce prehistory, see Aikens, "Far West"; Josephy, "Origins of the Nez Perce Indians," 4-13, much of which is in Josephy, Nez Perce Indians. For the Nez Perce language and examples of tribal folklore, see Aoki, Nez Perce Texts.

4. While discussions of the impact of the acquisition of horses among the Nez Perces is included in many of the titles in note 3, see in addition Ewers, "Horse Complex"; and Francis Haines, "Nez Perce Horses."

5. Francis Haines, "Nez Perce Horses," 10-11; Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 17-22; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 19-20, 33-34; Thomas, "Pi.Lu'.Ye.Kin," 1, 4, 6-8. The intertribal influences were reciprocal, with the Nez Perces contributing significantly to the Crows' culture, as well. Diana Miles, communication with author, Nez Perce National Historical Park, Spalding, Idaho, January 22, 1996.

6. Whalen, "Nez Perces' Relationship to Their Land," 30-32. See also Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 24-25.

7. It should be noted that many so-called "Christian tenets" were already long-practiced traditions in Nez Perce society. For example, they believed in a single creator deity called Hunywat long before the coming of the missionaries and their "God." Otis Halfmoon, communication with author, Nez Perce National Historical Park, Spalding, Idaho, November 8, 1995; and Diana Miles, communication with author, Spalding, Idaho, January 22, 1996.

8. Walker, Conflict and Schism, 32-44. In-depth treatment of the fur traders and missionaries among the Nez Perces is in Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 46-56, 71-110; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 40-78, 81-103ff.; and Thompson, Historic Resource Study, Spalding Area, 5-66. Discussion of the religion-based schism is in Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 245-48. See also Ray, "Ethnohistory of the Joseph Band."

9. For the Dreamer religion and its appearance and application among the Nez Perces, see Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 193-96; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 434-46; Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, 2:602-3; and Burns, Jesuits and the Indian Wars, 365. An in-depth, though dated, study is in Mooney, "Ghost-Dance Religion," 708-45.

10. Information presented here about the Nez Perce bands is derived from Josephy, Patriot Chiefs, 314; Lebain, Interview, Camp Manscripts, IU; Yellow Bull, Interview, BYU; Thomas, "Pi.Lu'.Ye.Kin," 7-8. For the Palouse, see Swanton, Indian Tribes, 433-34; Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, 2:195; and Trafzer and Scheureman, Chief Joseph's Allies.

Knowledge about the number, identification, and distribution of early Nez Perce bands is sketchy. Francis Haines stated that the entire tribe occupied as many as seventy villages (Haines, Nez Perces, 15), presumably, though unstated, with several of them representing single bands. From data derived from the 1855 treaty councils, McWhorter (McWhorter, Hear Me, 608-9) listed twenty-one locations of Nez Perce chiefs and their followers, while Josephy (Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 162-63) presents similar village locations for sixteen leaders for the period 1836-47. These villages, scattered as they appeared, seem to have politically coalesced to constitute the few major distinct bands acknowledged by the time of the treaties of 1855 and 1863 and the years preceding the war of 1877.

11. Drury, "Lawyer, Head Chief," 2-7. A comprehensive treatment of Lawyer appears in Drury, Chief Lawyer. Many Nez Perce names are either not translatable into English, or, when translatable, are too lengthy and complexly convoluted by English for textual use. Throughout this document, the Nee-Me-Poo name will be retained unless a preferred and commonly accepted English equivalent exists. In all instances, Nez Perce names will be introduced phonetically in Nee-Me-Poo whenever that equivalent is known. Generally, long-established spelling will be followed as presented in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf; McWhorter, Hear Me; and Josephy, Nez Perce Indians.

12. For Old Joseph, see Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 182, 189-91, 447-50, and passim; Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 77, 92, 115-17; Josephy, Patriot Chiefs, 319-20. Quote is from Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report . . . 1859, 420-21, as quoted in Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 152.

13. For specifics, see Royce, "Indian Land Cessions," pt. 2:806-7, pl. 16; Kappler, Indian Affairs, 2:702-6; and Kip, Indian Council at Walla Walla. A nonlegal description of the reservation is as follows: "The lands reserved by the treaty of 1855 embraced all the country enclosed by a line beginning at the source of the south fork of the Palouse, extending south-westerly to the mouth of the Tucannon, up the Tucannon to its source in the Blue Mountains, along this range in a general southerly direction to a point on Grand[e] Rond[e] River, midway between the Grand[e] Rond[e] and Wallowa Creek, along the divide between the Wallowa Creek and Powder River, crossing Snake River at the mouth of Powder River, thence in an easterly direction to Salmon River fifty miles above the mouth of the Little Salmon, thence north to the Bitter Root Mountains, and thence west to the place of beginning." Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 485. See also the comprehensive accounts of the 1855 treaty council in Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 315-38; and Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 119-32. Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville first used the term "Lower Nez Perces" to distinguish the Wallowa people from those east of Snake River. Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 108.

14. Walker, Conflict and Schism, 45; Thompson, Historic Resource Study, Spalding Area, 85; and MacDonald, "Nez Perces," 222-23. MacDonald's account, originally published serially in 1878 in the Deer Lodge New North-West, presented the first Nez Perce view of events surrounding their troubles in 1877 with the U.S. government. MacDonald was part Nez Perce, knew and was related to many of the principals within the tribe, and fluently spoke both Nez Perce and English. He interviewed tribesmen in Canada, notably Chief White Bird, to gain the Nez Perce perspective.

15. Stevens to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, October 22, 1856, roll 907, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, as quoted in Thompson, Historic Resource Study, Spalding Area, 83.

16. F. L. M., "Nez Perce War," 820-22; Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 490; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 387; Paul, Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 138, 143; Ross, Mining History of South-Central Idaho, 3-5; and Bolino, "Role of Mining," 116-51. Lawyer's remark is in "Grievances of the Nez Perce," 7. Quote from "Treaty of Agreement 10th April 1861," in Talkington, "History of the Nez Perce," 3; Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report . . . 1877, 9-10.

17. Talkington, "History of the Nez Perce," 6-8, 10; F. L. M., "Nez Perce War," 822; Walker, Conflict and Schism, 46; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 388-407, 433-34. Fort Lapwai (originally Camp Lapwai), established on August 6, 1862, by troops of the First Oregon Cavalry on orders from District of Oregon commander, Brigadier General Benjamin Alvord, stood on Lapwai Creek four miles above its confluence with the Clearwater and the Lapwai Agency. Because of the ongoing Civil War, Fort Lapwai was not occupied by regular troops until 1866. Intermittently abandoned and reoccupied over the next two decades, the post finally closed in 1884. A thorough history is in Thompson, Historic Resource Study, Fort Lapwai.

18. More specifically, the treaty "reserved an extent of country bounded by a line beginning at a point on the north bank of the Clearwater, three miles below the mouth of Lapwai Creek, crossing to the north bank at Hatwai Creek and taking in a strip of country seven miles wide along the river, reaching to the North Fork, thence in a general southerly course to the 46th parallel, and thence west and north to the place of beginning. . . ." Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 489. The treaty was slightly amended in 1868 to permit tribal use of lands within the tract formerly reserved for agency and military purposes. Kappler, Indian Affairs, 2:1024-25. For full discussion of the treaty of 1863, see Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 410-31; Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 159-64; and Thompson, Historic Resource Study, Spalding Area, 95-97. The treaty surrendered 6,932,270 acres of the Nez Perce land recognized in 1855. Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 429.

19. Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 429; Royce, "Indian Land Cessions," pt. 2:826-27; Kappler, Indian Affairs, 2:843-48, and, as amended in 1868, 2:1024-25; Drury, "Lawyer, Head Chief," 11; Walker, Conflict and Schism, 46-48, 51-52; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 433, 437-38. Annuities and monies promised under the 1863 treaty were likewise delayed, partly because of the ongoing Civil War. Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 490-91.

20. Josephy, Patriot Chiefs, 321. Quote is from F. L. M., "Nez Perce War," 823.

21. Quoted in F. L. M., "Nez Perce War," 823. See also Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report . . . 1873, 18; Royce, "Indian Land Cessions," pt. 2:864-65; Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 494; and the discussion in Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 215ff. For details of the formulation of the executive order, which was considerably based on apparently confused information regarding respective Nez Perce and white use of the Wallowa area, see Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 456-57.

22. Rowton, Interview; Lebain, Interview, LBNM, 138-39, 143-44.

23. Quote is from Monteith's report, September 9, 1873, in Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report . . . 1873, 246. In 1874, Monteith requested troops to oversee such a rendezvous near Pierce City on the reservation. See editorial in Boise, Idaho Statesman, July 14, 1877.

24. For the Ott affair, see "Lawrence Ott," in Illustrated History of North Idaho, 513; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 512-13; Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 210; and McWhorter, Hear Me, 122. Lawrence Ott maintained that he had killed a Umatilla Indian named Bear's Heart, and that "the Nez Perce had no grievances against me because of this affair, but they had against a man [Samuel] Benedict, who lived near the mouth of the W.B. [White Bird Creek], because of a N.P. he killed about 6 months before the war." Ott stated that a Nez Perce council had declared his killing of the Umatilla an act of self-defense. For Ott's detailed description of the encounter, see Ott, Interview.

25. Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 495. See Grover, Report, 62-64.

26. Royce, "Indian Land Cessions," pt. 2:864-65.

27. Quote is from Board of Indian Commissioners, Eighth Annual Report, 50.

28. At Howard's direction, Major Wood had become expert with regard to the Nez Perce and their treaties, privately publishing his The Treaty Status of Young Joseph and His Band of Nez Perce Indians in Portland in January 1876. The document's conclusions appeared in the Army and Navy Journal, issues of July 7, 1877, and (with corrections by Wood) September 8, 1877.

29. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report . . . 1877, 10-11; Josephy, Patriot Chiefs, 321-22. Quotes are from F. L. M., "Nez Perce War," 822, 824. The full statement of Old Joseph respecting his views of selling the Wallowa homeland is quoted by Young Joseph in Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 419 (republished as "Chief Joseph's Own Story," in Brady, Northwestern Fights and Fighters, 44-75.)

30. McDowell, "Report," 113. Just how close this incident came to instigating warfare in September 1876 is evident in documents contained in the Forse Papers. First Lieutenant Albert G. Forse commanded the troops from Fort Walla Walla and recalled the following details: "I made a forced march of over 80 miles in 24 hours, arriving there [Wallowa Valley] before daylight Sunday morning [Joseph's deadline], and in time to prevent an outbreak. . . . I went alone with a guide 7 miles to where Joseph was with his warriors. I found them well posted on a high ridge, stripped . . . to the breech clout, and in war paint and ready to commence hostilities. I went alone for the reason . . . [that] had I taken my troop the volunteers would have followed and . . . we would have had an Indian war upon our hands. . . . I was in danger of being shot at any time . . . and was in more danger than I have ever been in [in] an engagement." Forse to Howard, April 4, 1895, in ibid. Forse not only convinced Joseph that the murderers would be indicted, but obtained a penciled statement from one of two Nez Perce witnesses and arranged for them to testify before the court at Union, Oregon. See Forse's draft report, September 11, 1876; his "Statement of Indians"; and Forse to Judge Brainard, September 15, 1876, in Forse Papers. See also Josephy's description of this and succeeding events in Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 445-84.

31. Josephy, Patriot Chiefs, 319-20; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 486-91; and Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 214.

32. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, "Report . . . Nez Perce Indians," 211-12.

33. Quote from transcript of the proceedings in Board of Indian Commissioners, Eighth Annual Report, 58.

34. Ibid., 62-63. In their digest of the proceedings, published in Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report . . . 1877, the commissioners succinctly paraphrased Joseph's view as follows: "The 'Creative Power,' when he made the earth, made no marks, no lines of division or separation upon it, and . . . it should be allowed to remain as then made. The earth was his [Joseph's] mother. He was made of the earth and grew up on its bosom. The earth, as his mother and nurse, was sacred to his affections, too sacred to be valued by or sold for silver and gold. He could not consent to sever his affections from the land that bore him. He was content to live upon such fruits as the 'Creative Power' placed within and upon it, and unwilling to barter these and his free habits away for the new modes of life. . . ." Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Report . . . 1877, 212.

35. Quote from transcript in Board of Indian Commissioners, Eighth Annual Report, 60.

36. Quote is from ibid., 63. For full details of the murder incident, see Horner and Butterfield, "Nez Perce-Findley Affair," 40-51; and also, for its conclusion, Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 483-84.

37. Board of Indian Commissioners, Eighth Annual Report, 58; F. L. M., "Nez Perce War," 825-26; Josephy, Patriot Chiefs, 322-23. An overview of Howard's involvement in the proceedings is in John Carpenter, Sword and Olive Branch, 246-47.

38. Monteith to Commissioner of Indian Affairs J. Q. Smith, February 9, 1877, in McDowell, "Report," 115; Howard, "Report," 590 (this report was drafted after the conclusion of the Nez Perce campaign by Second Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood, Howard's aide as of late July 1877. Howard inserted material before submitting the document to his superiors. What appears to be the original draft is in the C. E. S. Wood Collection); "Report of the General of the Army," November 7, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . . 1877, 8-9. Howard's report was also published separately, as Supplementary Report.

39. Howard, "Report," 587-88.

40. Ibid., 589.

41. Quoted in MacDonald, "Nez Perces," 230. Howard's responses are on pages 228-30.

42. Monteith to Howard, March 19, 1877, Howard Collection, correspondence, 1877; Howard, "Report," 592-94; Howard, My Life and Experiences, 250.

43. Howard, My Life and Experiences, 252.

44. Howard, "Report," 594. A slightly variant account is in Howard, My Life and Experiences, 254-55.

45. Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 422. For other Nez Perce views of this episode, see MacDonald, "Nez Perces," 232, and the Chuslum Moxmox (Yellow Bull) account in Curtis, North American Indian, 8:163-64. Howard's counterpoint to Joseph's "An Indian's Views," in which Howard frequently cited official transcripts of the proceedings to correct Joseph's comments, is in Howard, "True Story . . . Wallowa Campaign," (and republished in Brady, Northwestern Fights and Fighters, 76-89). In its March 29, 1879 issue, the Army and Navy Journal questioned the accuracy of Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," stating that "it is a great mistake . . . not to give the name of the interpreter; for the English is not Chief Joseph's English, and the name of the interpreter (assuming that the story was told by the chief in his own tongue), and also of the writer who interpreted the interpreter, or prepared the article for publication, would furnish Army officers [and others] with the means of ascertaining the point of first consideration, how accurately the language conveys Chief Joseph's views and thoughts." Howard's aide, Wilkinson, referred to Toohoolhoolzote as "six feet and over of badness." Army and Navy Journal, August 18, 1877. The opinion that Howard's treatment of Toohoolhoolzote violated established council decorum is advanced by his former aide, C. E. S. Wood, in a letter to the editor, Portland Daily Oregonian, June 19, 1928.

46. Howard, "Report," 594-95.

47. Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 422.

48. Howard, My Life and Experiences, 257.

49. Howard, "Report," 595.

50. Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 422. One Nez Perce view is that six months would be required to round up the herds and report to the agency, and that because the people had, in essence, agreed to come in, the greater period of time should have been allowed. Slickpoo and Walker, Noon Nee-Me-Poo, 183-84. On the other hand, a document prepared on May 12three days before the final council meetingby Howard's aide, First Lieutenant Melville C. Wilkinson, indicates that Joseph thought thirty days was ample and, in fact, may have suggested that amount of time: "Joseph says it may be a month before he can get all of his stock over the Snake River. The General has given this length of time." Wilkinson to Captain Stephen G. Whipple, May 12, 1877, Department of the Columbia, Letters Sent, 2, 19, National Archives, quoted in John Carpenter, "General Howard," 132.

51. Howard, "Report," 596.

52. Ibid., 596-97. For additional accounts of the Fort Lapwai council, see Howard, "True Story . . . Wallowa Campaign," 59-64 (also published in Army and Navy Journal, June 28, 1879); Howard, Famous Indian Chiefs, 189-94; Howard, Nez Perce Joseph, 51-53; First Lieutenant Melville C. Wilkinson letter in Army and Navy Journal, August 18, 1877; FitzGerald, Army Doctor's Wife, 246-52. See also John Carpenter, Sword and Olive Branch, 248-49; Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 238-42; Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 497-508; and Thompson, Historic Resource Study, Fort Lapwai, 70-74. Nez Perce accounts appear in Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 230-33; and McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 37-41. Contemporary discussions of the Nez Perce situation that are based largely on Joseph's North American Review ("An Indian's Views") account, and that are sympathetic to the Indians, appear in Jackson, Century of Dishonor, 103-35; and Dunn, Massacres of the Mountains, 527-66. For an editorial perspective favorable to the Nez Perces, see "Responsibility for the Idaho War," 69-70.

53. Crook, General George Crook, 169.

54. This sketch of Howard is composed from the following works: Cullum, Biographical Register, 2:369-70; George C. Rable, "Oliver Otis Howard," in Spiller, Dictionary of American Military Biography, 2:493-96; Utley, "Oliver Otis Howard," 55-63; Robert M. Utley, introduction to reprint edition of Howard, My Life and Experiences, v-xvii; Ellis, "Humanitarian Generals," 169-70; Hutton, Soldiers West, 119. See also Howard's works as cited above; Howard, Autobiography; and the full biographical treatment in John Carpenter, Sword and Olive Branch.