Nez Perce Forlorn Hope: The Battle of White Bird Canyon

1. Elsensohn, Pioneer Days 1, pp. 106-08; Bailey, River of No Return, pp. 336-37.

2. Loyal P. Brown was born in Stratford, New Hampshire, on September 26, 1829. He left Boston in 1849 to try his luck in California and spent a year mining for gold on the Middle Fork of the American River at Rector's Bar. In 1850 he moved to Trinity River and engaged in trading and packing. In 1852 he settled at Scottsburg on the Umpqua River and remained in southern Oregon until he decided to leave for Idaho in 1862. He was a member of the Territorial Council and in 1875 he was instrumental in arranging the boundaries of Idaho County so that Mount Idaho became the county seat. He married his wife Sarah on October 24, 1855. L. P. Brown," North Idaho, p. 574; H. H. Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho and Montana (San Francisco, 1890), fn. 15, p. 553.

3. W. A. Goulder, "Northern Idaho," Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman, February 24, 1877, p. 2.

4. W. A. Goulder, "Northern Idaho," Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesmen, March 4, 1876, pp. 3-4; "Mount Idaho," Lewiston Teller, June 2, 1877, p. l.

5. John M. Crooks was born in Indiana in 1820. He crossed the plains to Oregon in 1852, and ten years later he settled on Camas Prairie. He secured the land, which became the site for Grangeville, in 1865. Among other things, he operated a stage line between Lewiston and Grangeville for many years. See Defenbach, Idaho, 1, fn. 11, p. 479.

6. Idaho Statesman, March 4, 1876, and February 24, 1877; O. O. Howard, Nez Perce, p. 109; Herbert Joseph Spinder, The Nez Perce Indians (Lancaster, 1908), p. 176; Defenbach, 1, p. 480.

7. McWhorter listed 28 Nez Perce who had been murdered by whites between 1861 and 1877. In the late 1870's, James Reuben is supposed to have submitted a list of names that totaled 32. McWhorter, Hear Me, pp. 116-31. See also Haines, Nez Perce, 180-84; Brown, Flight of the Nez Perce, pp. 44-67.

8. Harriet Brown Adkison in Nez Perce Indian War and Original Stories, p. 42.

9. North Idaho, p. 56.

10. Letter from Brown to captain David Perry, June 14, in O. O. Howard, Nez Perce, pp. 90-91.

11. Looking Glass was the leader of the Alpowai band, and was one of the most respected warriors among the nontreaty Indians. McWhorter, Hear Me, pp. 182-83.

12. Statement of Arthur Chapman, November 23, 1886, Chapman 1102; Letter from Major James P. Canby to AAG, Department of the Columbia, August 6, 1877, in Claim of Henry Croasdaile, no. 7439, RG 123.

13. Harriet Adkison in Original Stories, p. 44; J. Loyal Adkison and Norman B. Adkison in Lewiston Morning Tribune, January 12, 1958, p. 1; Accounts of Harriet Adkison and Alice Overman in Pioneer Days, I p. 115; 2, p. 527; North Idaho, p. 60.

14. Jennie Bunker in Winners of the West, p. 8; Harriet Adkison in Original Stories, p. 44.

15. Elsensohn, 1, pp. 130-31.

16. Statement of Chapman, November 23, 1886, Chapman 1102.

17. Brown to Perry, 7 a.m., June 15, 1877, in O. O. Howard, Nez Perce, p. 95.

18. Statement of Chapman, November 23, 1886; Brown to Perry, 8 a.m. June 15, 1877, in O. O. Howard, Nez Perce, pp. 95-96.

19. Bunker in Winners of the West, p. 8; Adkison in Original Stories, p. 43.

20. Statement of L. P. Brown, September 27, 1890, and Claimant's Brief, 1897-1898, Claim of L. P. Brown, no. 2714, RG 123; Patrick Brice, "The Nez Perce Outbreak," Idaho World, September 14, 1877, p. 2.

21. Statement of Lynn A. Schafter, July 20, 1898, Bunker 9816; Kirkwood, Nez Perce Indian War, pp. 56-57.

22. Statement of Henry C. Johnson, August 18, 1890, and statement of I. A. Watson, August 23, 1890, Claim of Henry C. Johnson, no. 3501, RG 123.

23. Wilmot in Original Stories, p. 25.

24. Adkison in Original Stories, p. 44.