1. Gibbon, "Report of the Commanding General," 66. See also DeMontravel, "Miles," 269-70.

2. For the military operations against the Lakotas and Northern Cheyennes out of the Tongue River Cantonment, see Greene, Yellowstone Command.

3. Miles to Howard, February 1, 1877, correspondence (1877), Howard Collection.

4. The district consisted of "the Posts on the Tongue and Big Horn Rivers and Fort Peck; [and] such portion of the garrison of Fort Buford, D.T., as may, under authority received from Dept. Hdqrs, be called into the field. . . . The Hdqrs of the District will, until further orders, be at Cantonment on Tongue River, or with the Commanding Officer in the field." General Orders No. 1, Headquarters, District of the Yellowstone, Cantonment at Tongue River, M.T., September 4, 1877, entry 903, part 3, General Orders and Circulars, Sept. 1877-June 1881, District of the Yellowstone, U.S. Army Continental Commands. During the Indian campaigns of the post-Civil War period, Miles was in demand because of his proactive leadership and direct involvement, impressing not only his superior officers but also the enlisted men of his command. "General Miles [is] the Best Indian Fighter there is on the Prairie today since Custer Fell," wrote Private Oliver P. Howe, Company H, Second Cavalry, soon after the Nez Perce campaign. Howe to Samuel J. Howe, October 11, 1877, Howe Letters. Miles later became commanding general of the army before his retirement in 1903. For background on his career, see Wooster, Nelson A. Miles; Pohanka, Nelson A. Miles; DeMontravel, "Miles"; and Virginia Johnson, Unregimented General. Autobiographies are in Miles, Personal Recollections; and Miles, Serving the Republic.

5. Miles, Personal Recollections, 260-61; Regimental Returns . . . Fifth Infantry, September 1877, roll 58; and Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly," 186.

6. Miles to Sturgis, August 19, 1877, Baird Papers.

7. Major George Gibson to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Dakota, October 1, 1877, in Terry, "Report," 546-47; and Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 114. Originally, Company B, Seventh Cavalry, under Captain Thomas B. McDougall, was ordered to join the commission, but McDougall took sick ("drunk," according to Edward S. Godfrey's account) and Hale's unit started instead. Edward S. Godfrey, account of the Bear's Paw Campaign, October 31, 1877, Godfrey Papers, LC.

8. Miles later recalled receiving the dispatch: "During the afternoon of September 17th I observed a dark object appear over the high bluff to the west and move down the trail to the bank of the Yellowstone. He was soon ferried across, and, riding up, dismounted and saluted. Without waiting for him to report, I asked him if they had had a fight. He replied, 'No, but we have had a good chance.'" Miles, Serving the Republic, 172.

9. Terry, "Report," 514; and Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis report, December 5, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . . 1877, 73. The message was accompanied by a report from Sturgis accounting for his failure to stop the Nez Perces and blaming it on "the absence of a single guide, who had ever been in the country in which we were operating, taken in connection with our ignorance of it, and its exceeding rough and broken character, and my inability to learn anything of Howard's position, [all of which] enabled them to elude me at the very moment I felt sure of success. This is extremely mortifying to me." Sturgis to Miles, September 13, 1877, in Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis report, December 5, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report, 1877, 73-74. It must be stated that Terry's message was not an order directing Miles to action, but a request for assistance, since technically Howard was from another military department to which Miles was not subjected. According to military protocol, however, should the two meet in the field, Howard, by virtue of his rank, could assume command of a combined force; until then, Miles subscribed directly to the orders of Generals Terry and Sheridan, and Commanding General Sherman. For this discussion, see William H. C. Bowen to the editor, The Spectator, September 21, 1929, foldercorrespondence of William Bowen, 1908-1931, boxWilliam Bowen personal papers, Bowen Papers.

10. Miles to Terry, September 17, 1877, in Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis report, December 5, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . . 1877, 73. Miles sent Howard an almost identical message, explaining his plan for "intersecting the Nez Perces" before they could reach Sitting Bull's camp. Miles to Howard, September 17, 1877, copy in folder: Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family Papers. The troops remaining on the Yellowstone included the First Infantry companies at Bighorn Post, and Companies A, C, D, E, Fifth Infantry, and Company C, Seventh Cavalry, which garrisoned the Tongue River Cantonment. Regimental Returns . . . Fifth Infantry, September 1877, roll 58; and Regimental Returns . . . Seventh Cavalry, September 1877, roll 72. Miles's adjutant, First Lieutenant George W. Baird, described Miles's proposed route of march as being "along the hypothenuse of a triangle, to intercept a rapidly marching force which was following the perpendicular and had had five days the start." Baird, "General Miles's Indian Campaigns," 363.

11. Miles to Howard, September 17, 1877, copy in folder: Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family Papers.

12. An enlisted man remembered: "On September 17, just after midnight, there was loud knocking at the door of D Company, Fifth Infantry. We heard the headquarters orderly tell the first sergeant to turn out the company for a 30 days scout in light marching order. Fort Keogh [sic] was soon in a buzz of preparation for an Indian campaign. By daylight the next morning the command . . . was moving out." Winners of the West, October 30, 1936.

13. Snyder, "Diary," September 17, 1877.

14. Alice Baldwin, Memoirs . . . Baldwin, 191.

15. Miles, Personal Recollections, 262.

16. Fragmentary note dated October 3, 1877, in Edward S. Godfrey's hand, item 16, container 1, Godfrey Papers, LC; Gibson to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Dakota, October 1, 1877, in Terry, "Report," 547; Miles, "Report," 527; Circular, September 17, 1877, entry 903, part 3, General Orders and Circulars, September 1877-June 1881, District of the Yellowstone, U.S. Army Continental Commands; and Army and Navy Journal, December 8, 1877. Most previous estimates of the size of Miles's command on the Nez Perce campaign have been far too low. This approximate figure is reconstructed based on examination of several sources, notably the following: Regimental Returns . . . Seventh Cavalry, August and September, 1877, roll 72; Regimental Returns . . . Second Cavalry, August and September, 1877, roll 19; Regimental Returns . . . Fifth Infantry, August and September, 1877, roll 58; Surgeon Henry R. Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; and Godfrey, Interview.

17. Basic information about these officers is in Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary as follows: Hale (1:487), Biddle (1:217), Moylan (1:733), Godfrey (1:461), Eckerson (1:396), Tyler (1:977), McClernand (1:657), Jerome (1:573), Bennett (1:211), Woodruff (1:1058), Snyder (1:907), Romeyn (1:844), Carter (1:287), Baird (1:183), Long (1:640), Maus (1:698), Tilton (1:836), and Gardner (1:445). In addition, for Hale and Biddle, see Army and Navy Journal, October 13, 1877; and for Godfrey, whose extensive and action-filled frontier career commanded special interest, see Carroll and Price, Roll Call on the Little Big Horn, 61-63; and Chandler, Of Garry Owen in Glory, 360-62. Godfrey's article about the Little Bighorn is an oft-reprinted classic (Godfrey, "Custer's Last Battle").

18. First Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin to Tyler, September 18, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands. See also Tyler to Baldwin, September 19, 1877, ibid., which contains details of Tyler's and Hale's marches. Hale had been notified of the change on September 17 and had been directed to return his company to the cantonment. News of the Nez Perce situation, however, changed that directive, and instead of turning back, Hale awaited the arrival of Tyler's battalion. Biddle, Diary, September 17, 18, 1877.

19. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1697.

20. Miles, Personal Recollections, 263. Lieutenant Henry Romeyn, writing long after the fact, maintained that these scouts had located "flankers" of the Nez Perce column. If so, the sightings went unacknowledged in the official reports. See Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 285.

21. Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 117. Miles's directive prohibiting shooting is in Circular, September 21, 1877, entry 903, part 3, General Orders and Circulars, September 1877-June 1881, District of the Yellowstone, U.S. Army Continental Commands.

22. Tilton, "After the Nez Perces," 403. A condensation of this piece appears in Army and Navy Journal, February 9, 1878.

23. Howard to Miles, September 20, 1877, folder: Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family Papers. Biddle's own account of the stopping of the Fontenelle is in Biddle to Mother, n.d. [September 24, 1877], box 2, Biddle Collection. Biddle's mother wrote on the top of this letter, "The last letter my darling ever wrote."

24. Johnson was a highly regarded scout who had served Miles valuably during the Sioux campaigns, and his death was keenly felt. He mistook the swift-running Missouri for the Musselshell and tried to swim his horse across. See Miles, Personal Recollections, 263; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; and, particularly, Barker, "Campaign and Capture," (December 1922): 7, 30.

25. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1698. In his books, Miles, Personal Recollections (263) and Miles, Serving the Republic (173), Miles fondly boasted that his men marched fifty-two miles within twenty-four hours to reach the Missouri on September 23. In fact, in two days' marching on the twenty-second and twenty-third, the men made 57.45 miles35.83 miles the first day and 21.57 miles the secondaccording to Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1697-98. This description of Miles's march to the Missouri is drawn from material in Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1696-98; Miles, "Report," 527; Snyder, "Diary," September 18-23, 1877; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 117-18; Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 284-85; Army and Navy Journal, February 9, 1878; Baird, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 209-11; Baird, "General Miles's Indian Campaigns," 363; Miles, Personal Recollections, 261-64; and Miles, Serving the Republic, 173-74.

26. Biddle to Mother, n.d. [September 24, 1877], box 2, Biddle Collection.

27. Baldwin to Tyler, September 24, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands. See also Miles, Personal Recollections, 264.

28. Miles to Terry, September 24, 1877, Department of Dakota, Letters Sent, item 4043, entry 1167, U.S. Army Continental Commands.

29. Snyder, "Diary," September 24, 1877; Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 118; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Godfrey, Interview; and Circular, September 24, 1877, entry 903, part 3, General Orders and Circulars, September 1877-June 1881, District of the Yellowstone, U.S. Army Continental Commands.

30. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1698.

31. Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly," 186; and Kelly, "Capture of Nez Perces."

32. Bailey to Baldwin, 9:15 a.m., September 25, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands.

33. Clendenin to Bailey, September 24, 1877, ibid. See also Barker, "Campaign and Capture," (December 1922): 30.

34. Miles, "Report," 528. See also Miles, "Report of Col. Nelson A. Miles," October 6, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . . 1877, 74.

35. The fuses on the projectiles were shortened to insure their bursting high in the air. Baldwin, Interview. See Miles, Personal Recollections, 265; Miles, Serving the Republic, 174-75; and Steinbach, Long March, 129-30. Godfrey stated that the Napoleon gun was used to signal the craft. Godfrey, Interview.

36. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1698; Miles, "Report," 527; Snyder, "Diary," September 25, 1877; Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 118; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Godfrey, Interview; and Kelly, "Capture of Nez Perces." Private Luther Barker remembered that the crossing necessitated unloading the supplies from the wagons and carrying them aboard the steamer. Then "the wagons had to be taken apart and carried a piece at a time on board the steamer." Barker, "Campaign and Capture," (January 1923): 7. For background on Kelly (1849-1928), Miles's most trusted civilian scout during his campaigns on the northern plains, see his autobiography, Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly"; and Keenan, "Yellowstone Kelly."

37. Miles to Mary Miles, September 26, 1877, quoted in Virginia Johnson, Unregimented General, 197.

38. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699.

39. Ibid.

40. Ibid.

41. Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General.

42. Tilton, "After the Nez Perces," 403.

43. Snyder stated that this camp was on "Dry Fork of Milk River," but it might, in fact, have been on an affluent of the South Fork of Beaver Creek, an often dry tributary of Milk River. Snyder, "Diary," September 27, 1877. For activities of September 26 and 27, see appropriate entries in Snyder, "Diary"; Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 120; Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Howe to Howe, November 11, 1877, Howe Letters; and Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 285-86.

44. There is some evidence that a few of the Cheyenne scouts contacted the Nez Perces during this period, probably as the families moved north toward Snake Creek from Cow Creek Canyon. The Cheyennes reportedly lied, telling the Nez Perces they were not scouts, whereupon the tribesmen took them into their village and gave them food. By the time the Cheyennes returned to Miles with intelligence of the Nez Perces, the colonel already knew of the location of the village. See Stands In Timber and Liberty, Cheyenne Memories, 227; and Brown and Felton, Frontier Years, 107, 244 (citing Rufus Wallowing to the authors, April 1951).

45. Miles, Personal Recollections, 266.

46. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699.

47. Long described the route on September 28 thus: "Our trail still clings closely to the northern side of the Little Rockies, and at 4.10 p.m. we cross People's Creek; it has a gravelly bed, running spring-water, but no wood in sight. Passing over several small branches of this creek which wind among the foot-hills of the mountains at 6 p.m., after a march of 28.36 miles, we finally encamp on one of them near the gap or pass of the Little Rockies that tower above us. The pass is the only one through these mountains, and not a little difficulty is experienced in following its intricate windings." Ibid., 1699-700.

48. Ilges to Miles, September 27, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands; Helena Weekly Independent, October 11, 1877; and Ilges's letter in Army and Navy Register, September 1, 1883.

49. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1700.

50. Godfrey, Interview.

51. Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly," 188.

52. Miles, Personal Recollections, 267. The message from Howard to Miles, September 26, 1877, and Miles's response, September 29, 1877, are in folder: Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family Papers. Miles might also have received two other dispatches at this time. (Private Ami Frank Mulford, Seventh Cavalry, claimed to have ridden from Sturgis to Miles before the Bear's Paw engagement opened. See Mulford, Fighting Indians!, 117). One, sent via Fort Ellis from Terry at Fort Shaw, offered plausible vindication for his future movements, stating: "I revoke any order forbidding movement to the North prior to the return of the Commission. I leave the whole subject to your discretion and best judgement." Terry to Miles, September 26, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands. The other, a penciled personal note from Howard at the Musselshell, referenced Miles's dispatch of September 17 and bemoaned his continued criticism by the press. Howard to Miles, September 20, 1877, Miles Family Papers, LC. Beyond the material quoted above, this description of the events of September 28 and 29 is based on accounts in Miles, Personal Recollections, 266-67; Miles, "Report," 528; Miles, "Report of Col. Nelson A. Miles," October 6, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . . 1877, 74; Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699-700; Snyder, "Diary," September 28, 29, 1877; Howe to Howe, November 11, 1877, Howe Letters; Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 121; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Godfrey, Interview; Gaybower, Interview; Baird, "General Miles's Indian Campaigns," 363; Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly," 188-90; and Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 286.

53. William F. Schmalsle is mentioned in Bailey to Baldwin, September 25, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands. In a 1914 letter, the retired Marion Maus wrote that "I had 32 Cheyennes besides the whites, Trippe [sic], Smalze [sic] and Yellowstone Kelly." Maus to Walter M. Camp, February 2, 1914, folder 1, box 2, Camp Papers, BYU. Maus's engagement with the Indians on September 29 is described in "Memoranda of Active Service . . . Maus." It is referenced in a letter, Miles to Adjutant General, March 26, 1894, Medal of Honor, Special File. In another letter, Maus wrote: "We had a fight with the Indians on the 29th wounding or killing two and capturing a herd of horses. This about 25 miles from the scene of fight & surrender at Bear Paw." Maus to Camp, February 2, 1914, folder 1, box 2, Camp Papers, BYU. "Yellowstone" Kelly described what was probably this encounter, but mistakenly had it occurring on the thirtieth. Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly," 191-92. See also Kelly, "Capture of Nez Perces."

54. "Map of Milk River Indian Country." See Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 33-35, for general commentary on tribal interrelationships, but for a comprehensive discussion, see McGinnis, Counting Coup and Cutting Horses, passim.

55. Weed and Pirsson, "The Bearpaw Mountains," 283-87. On the origin of the range's name, the article states: "The name of the mountain group is itself derived from the Indian designation for Black Butte near Fort Assinniboine [1896], called by them the Bear's Paw. The mountains of course became known as the Mountains of the Bear's Paw." Weed and Pirsson, "The Bearpaw Mountains," 284. According to legend, however, the origin of the mountains, and hence their name, "Bear's Paw," came from area Indians (which tribe or tribes is not stated). Centennial Mountain, in the extreme part of the range, in shape resembles a dead or prostrate bear. The legend states that, because of the presence of many bears, the tribesmen never hunted there. One winter, however, a brave Indian hunter ventured to camp on Big Sandy Creek, killed a deer, and was leaving the mountains with the deer when the Master Bear appeared and held the warrior to the ground with his paw. The Indian, who needed the game for his starving people, appealed to a supreme deity, who ordered the bear to release him. When the bear refused, the deity let loose bolts of lightning that severed the animal's paw, freeing the Indian, and killing all the bears in the mountains. Appropriately, at the point of severance of the bear's paw near Centennial Mountain exists a geological fault that adds credence to the legend, while adjacent Box Elder Butte represents the paw. This account, attributed by geologist William Pecora to Montana state senator William Cowan, is in Pecora, Letter. See also Chinook Opinion, August 25, 1955. Through the years, the nomenclature has included Bear's Paw, Bearpaw (USGS, 1987), Bears Paw (USGS, 1987), and Bear Paw, in reference to this range; historically, however, the term, "Bear's Paw" predominated over all others, and for that reason it has been retained in the present narrative. The Nez Perces called them the Wolf's Paw Mountains. Yellow Bull, Interview, LBNM; and Camp to Romeyn, March 27, 1918, Ellison Collection. The U.S. Geological Survey has designated the range the Bearpaw Mountains, and the National Park Service, as of October 1994, determined that the name of the unit of Nez Perce National Historical Park would be Bear Paw Battlefield.

56. Yellow Bull, Interview, BYU.

57. This account is from "Yellow Bull's Story." See also McWhorter, Hear Me, 478; McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 204; and the recollections of Suhmkeen (later known as Samuel Tilden), in Alcorn and Alcorn, "Old Nez Perce Recalls," 70. The Nez Perce James Stewart told Camp that the people had a somewhat different reason for stopping: "[They] knew they had a big start on Howard and the women and children wanted to rest. Some of the warriors were for going on and all intended to do so the next day [September 30]. They knew they were near the Canadian border. Dissensions and jealousies had also arisen and some of those who had taken a leading part all along in conducting affairs became disgusted and the morale of the whole band had fallen into a rather bad way. These men knew the trails through the mountains and through the buffalo country." Unclassified envelope 91, Camp Manuscript Field Notes, Camp Papers, BYU. Most Nez Perce accounts are specific in stating that the people realized that they had not already crossed into Canada. Joseph claimed such in Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 429, soon after the warfare ended. Indian Superintendent James McLaughlin stated that he conversed with Joseph in 1900 about the 1877 war and that Joseph told him: "I had made a mistake by not crossing into the country of the Red Coats, also in not keeping the country scouted in my rear." McLaughlin, My Friend the Indian, 363 (see also 361).

58. This description of the location of the Nee-Me-Poo encampment is based upon information derived from James Magera, various communications with author, Havre, Mont., 1994 and 1995; author's field notes, June 9, 1994; New York Herald, October 11, 1877; C. Raymond Noyes, plat, "Battle of the Bear's Paw," NA; Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 287; Alva Noyes, In the Land of the Chinook, 71-73; Francis Haines, "Chief Joseph," 7; Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 273; and Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 615-16. The camping sites of the different bands were identified by two aged warriors, Many Wounds and White Hawk, who had fought at Bear's Paw and who accompanied Lucullus V. McWhorter to the field in 1928 and 1935. Within specific camp circles, they identified the following individuals (presumably with families) as among the occupants: [Joseph's camp] Poker Joe, Young Buffalo Bull, Many Coyotes, Lone Bird, Red Spy, Kowtolikts, Black Trail, Lahpeealoot (Geese Three Times Alighting on Water), Joseph, Eagle Necklace Sr., John Dog, Howithowit, Ollokot, Red Wolf, and Koosouyeen (Going Alone); [Looking Glass's camp] Husis Kute, Kolkolhkequtolekt, Looking Glass, Sahpunmas (Vomiting), Toonahon, Peopeo Tholekt, White Bull, and No Hunt (Looking Glass's brother); [White Bird's camp] White Bird, Weyahsimlikt, Yellow Bull, Koolkool Snehee (Red Owl), Yellow Grizzly Bear, Wayatanatoo Latpah (Sun Tied), Peopeo Yahnaptah, Koolkool Stahlihken, Two Moons, Blacktail Eagle, and Shot in Head; and [Toohoolhoolzote's camp] Toohoolhoolzote, White Eagle, Struck by Lightning, Rainbow Sr., Five Times, Wenottahkahcikoon, No Fingers, Wottolen (Hair Combed Over Eyes), Ipnoutoosahkown, Shot in Breast, Tom Hill, Buffalo Horn, Eagle Necklace Sr. (also listed as being in Joseph's camp), Charging Hawk, and Nicyotscoohume. McWhorter, "Stake Tabulation, Chief Joseph's Camp" (this appears to be the first draft); and McWhorter, "Stake Tabulation of the Bear's Paw Mountain Battlefield." Both of these lists place the Palouse leader Husis Kute in Looking Glass's camp. Information on tabulation is correlated on C. Raymond Noyes, plat, "Battle of the Bear's Paw," NA. See also McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 323-38 (index); and McWhorter, Hear Me, 633-40 (index), for confirmation of individuals' names.

59. Maus's party seemingly did not return to the column until the battle at Snake Creek was well underway. See Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly," 192.

60. Shambo, "Reminiscences." Shambo's account is reprinted in Alva Noyes, In the Land of the Chinook, 73-77.

61. The Northern Cheyenne scouts with Miles included the following: Brave Wolf, Old Wolf, Magpie Eagle, Crazy Mule, Young Two Moon (John Two Moon), High Wolf, Starving Elk, Tall White Elk (or Tall White Antelope?), White Wolf, Little Sun, Spotted Blackbird (later known as Medicine Top), Little Yellow Man, Stands Different, Timber, Sa-huts, Yellow Weasel, Little Old Man, Medicine Flying, Ridge Bear, White Bear, White Bird, Big Head, War Bonnet, Bear Rope, Elk Shows His Horns, and Hail. Lakota scouts present included Hump, Roman Nosed Sioux, Iron Shield (or Iron Shirt?), and No Scalplock. A number of the listed Cheyennes were, in fact, not scouts but volunteers who hoped to acquire Nez Perce horses by participating in the venture. Two of the Cheyennes, White Bear and White Bird, apparently scouted so far away from the command that they did not participate in the action at Bear's Paw. This information has been compiled from Young Two Moon, Account. A slightly variant version is "Capture of the Nez Perces, Young Two Moon's Account." In a second-generation statement, John Stands-in-Timber contended in 1954 that Young Two Moon and High Wolf had discovered the Nez Perce village on September 29. Dusenberry, "Northern Cheyenne," 27.

62. Tilton, "After the Nez Perces," 403.

63. Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 286. For the formation of the column, see also Moylan to Ernest Garlington, August 16, 1878, copy in Godfrey Papers, LC. (This document is reprinted in Chandler, Of Garry Owen in Glory, 74-76.)

64. Long to Miles, August 16, 1890, Long Papers; and Godfrey, Interview.

65. Description based on an interview with Charles K. Bucknam and G. H. Snow, New York Herald, October 11, 1877. (This account is abbreviated in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, October 27, 1877.) Bucknam was one of the Fort Benton volunteers dispatched by Ilges to Miles after the Cow Island/Cow Creek Canyon affairs. Army and Navy Register, September 1, 1883.

66. Godfrey, Interview. Former Private Fremont Kipp, Company D, Seventh Cavalry, told Walter M. Camp: "When we got within 5 or 6 miles of the camp that morning we got within 1000 yds of a Nez Perce outpost of 3 Inds [sic] who were sitting by a fire. When they saw us they rode off bare back, leaving their saddles. We were coming from the S.E. & had not struck the main trail yet. They evidently thought we were going direct to the village & so instead of trying to mislead us struck out for the village themselves & our scouts followed them." Kipp, Interview.

67. Undated fragmentary note penciled in Godfrey's hand, part of which is in container 1, folios 14-15, Godfrey Papers, LC, while a continuation page is in the Godfrey Papers, MHI. A contemporary account by Lieutenant Jerome of the Second Cavalry partly dispelled Hale's purported statement: "The story about Hale's saying, 'My God! am I going to be killed so early in the morning?' is probably a fiction. What did occur was this. When the command halted . . . , Hale, who was spoiling for a fight, but who was evidently nervous and troubled, took out a charm given to him by a lady, which he wore around his neck and said:'Jerome, if I should get killed this morning I want you to see that this gets back'mentioning the lady's name. I bantered him a moment about it. Then he took it in his hand and threw it with a gesture against his heart, laughed in his peculiar manner and exclaimed:'There, nothing is going to harm me now.'" New York Herald, October 30, 1877. Still another story of Hale's portent had him saying, on the eve of his departure from the cantonment: "Pray for me, for I am never coming back!" Alice Baldwin, Memoirs of . . . Baldwin, 192. See also Carriker and Carriker, An Army Wife, 106-7.

68. Titus, "Last Stand," 148. This article, while containing inaccurate and undocumented information, is to some degree useful because Titus was able to have then-Colonel Edward S. Godfrey, a participant, review and correct the manuscript. Godfrey evidently concurred with the statement regarding the viewing of the herd from the ridge "between Peoples Creek and Snake Creek." Nelson Titus to Godfrey, June 11, 1905, Godfrey Papers, LC.

69. Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 286; Miles, Personal Recollections, 267. It is doubtful that Miles or any of his command, save perhaps the white scouts, ever knew the full extent of the pre-action involving the Northern Cheyennes at the Nez Perce camp; only their own accounts, given to selected whites years later, described the introductory skirmishing in any detail.

70. This description of the advance has been reconstructed from the sources quoted or cited in explanatory footnotes, besides the following: Miles, "Report," 528; Miles, "Report of Col. Nelson A. Miles," October 6, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . . 1877, 74; Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1700; Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 121-22; Snyder, "Diary," September 30, 1877; Howe to Howe, November 11, 1877, Howe Letters; Moylan to Garlington, August 16, 1878, copy in Godfrey Papers, LC; and Baird, "General Miles's Indian Campaigns," 363.

71. For details of the Lame Deer fight, see Greene, Yellowstone Command, 205-13. For descriptions and assessments of the army's tactical recourses during the so-called Indian wars of the 1870s, see ibid., 10-12; and Wooster, The Military and United States Indian Policy, 135-42. For an overview of the procedures and pitfalls of the system, including the surprise tactic, during this period, see Cook, "Art of Fighting Indians."

72. This estimate of the village population is derived from knowledge of the estimates given by Shively and Irwin in the national park, as well as the surrender figures given by McWhorter's Nez Perce sources in McWhorter, Hear Me, 499; and estimates by Black Eagle regarding the number of people who escaped to Canada, presented in McWhorter, Hear Me, 499. Also considered was the tabulation of surrendered Nez Perces given in "Report of Indians . . . District of the Yellowstone."

73. Pre-battle activities in the Nez Perce camp are described in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205; McWhorter, Hear Me, 478-81; Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 428; and Garcia, Tough Trip through Paradise, 293.

74. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205. Ten-year-old Suhmkeen recalled that the man "yelled, then he fired his rifle in the air, at the same time he waved a blanket giving us the signal . . . 'Soldiers comingsoldiers coming.'" Alcorn and Alcorn, "Old Nez Perce Recalls," 71.

75. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205. For the alarm in the camp, see McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205; McWhorter, Hear Me, 479, 481; Yellow Bull, Interview, LBNM; MacDonald, "Nez Perces," 269; and Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 274-75.