Nez Perce War - Background

Background

In 1855, at the Walla Walla Council, the Nez Perce were coerced by the United States federal government into giving up their ancestral lands and moving to the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon Territory with the Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla tribes. The tribes involved were so bitterly opposed to the terms of the plan that Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, and Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon Territory, signed the Nez Perce Treaty in 1855, which granted the Nez Perce the right to remain in a large portion of their own lands in Idaho, Washington and Oregon territories, in exchange for relinquishing almost 5.5 million acres of their approximately 13 million acre homeland to the U.S. government for a nominal sum, with the caveat that they be able to hunt, fish and pasture their horses etc. on unoccupied areas of their former land -the same rights to use public lands as Anglo-American citizens of the territories.

The newly established Nez Perce Indian reservation was 7.5 million acres in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington territories. Under the terms of the treaty, no white settlers were allowed on the reservation without the permission of the Nez Perce. However, in 1860 gold was discovered and 5,000 gold-seekers rushed onto the reservation, illegally founding the city of Lewiston, Idaho as a supply depot on Nez Perce land. Ranchers and farmers followed the miners, and the U.S. government failed to keep settlers out of Indian lands. The Nez Perce were incensed at the failure of the US government to uphold the treaties, and at settlers who squatted on their land and plowed up their camas prairies, which they depended on for subsistence.

In 1863, a group of Nez Perce were again coerced into signing away part of their reservation to the U.S., this time almost all of it, leaving only 750,000 acres in Idaho Territory. Under the terms of the treaty, all Nez Perce were to move onto the new, and much smaller, reservation. A large number of Nez Perce, however, did not accept the validity of the treaty, refused to move to the reservation, and remained on their traditional lands. The Nez Perce who approved the treaty were mostly Christian; the opponents mostly followed the traditional religion. The “non-treaty” Nez Perce included the band of Chief Joseph, who lived in the Wallowa valley in Oregon. Disputes there with white farmers and ranchers led to the murders of several Nez Perce, and the murderers were never prosecuted.

Tensions between Nez Perce and white settlers rose in 1876 and 1877. General Oliver Howard called a council in May 1877 and ordered the non-treaty bands to move to the reservation, setting an impossible deadline of 30 days. Howard humiliated the Nez Perce by jailing their old leader, Toohoolhoolzote, who spoke against moving to the reservation. The other Nez Perce leaders, including Chief Joseph, considered military resistance to be futile; they agreed to the move and reported as ordered to Fort Lapwai, Idaho. By June 14, 1877 about 600 Nez Perce from Joseph's and White Bird's bands had gathered at Camas prairie six miles west of present-day Grangeville, Idaho. That day, three warriors, outraged at past abuses, attacked nearby white settlers, killing four men who had wronged them. In a subsequent raid the next day, a war party of 20 Nez Perce killed between 12 and 14 additional settlers, including some women and children.

Joseph and his brother Ollokot were away from the camp during the raids on June 14 and 15. When they arrived at the camp the next day, most of the Nez Perce had departed for a campsite on White Bird Creek to await the response of General Howard. Joseph considered an appeal for peace to the Whites, but realized it would be useless after the raids. Meanwhile, Howard mobilized his military force and sent out 130 men, including 13 friendly Nez Perce scouts, under the command of Captain David Perry to punish the Nez Perce and force them onto the reservation. Howard anticipated that his soldiers "will make short work of it." The Nez Perce defeated Perry at the Battle of White Bird Canyon and began their long flight to escape from the American soldiers.