THE LAST INDIAN WAR ALSO BY ELLIOTT WEST The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado Growing Up in Twentieth-Century America: A History and Resource Guide The Way to the West: Essays on the Central Plains Growing Up with the Country: Childhood on the Far Western Frontier The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier PIVOTAL MOMENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY Series Editors David Hackett Fischer James M. McPherson James T. Patterson Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy Maury Klein Rainbow’s End: The Crash of 1929 James McPherson Crossroads of Freedom: The Battle of Antietam Glenn C. Altschuler All Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America David Hackett Fischer Washington’s Crossing John Ferling Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 Colin G. Calloway The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America Joel H. Silbey Storm over Texas: The Annexation Controversy and the Road to Civil War Raymond Arsenault Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice Sally McMillen Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement Howard Jones The Bay of Pigs Lynn Parsons The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 This page intentionally left blank THE LAST INDIAN WAR THE NEZ PERCE STORY ELLIOTT WEST 1 2009 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2009 by Elliott West Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data West, Elliot, 1945– The last Indian war : the Nez Perce story / Elliott West. p. cm.— (Pivotal moments in American history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-513675-3 1. Nez Percé Indians—Wars, 1877. 2. Nez Percé Indians—History—19th century. 3. Joseph, Nez Percé Chief, 1840–1904. 4. Big Hole, Battle of the, Mont., 1877. I. Title. E83.877.W472009 973.8'3—dc22 2008051382 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my students This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS List of Illustrations and Maps xi Editor’s Note xv Preface xvii Timeline xxvii PART I Chapter 1 Real People 3 Chapter 2 Marks of Friendship 20 Chapter 3 The Place of the Butterfl ies 35 Chapter 4 “God Named This Land to Us” 52 Chapter 5 Gold, Prophecy, and the Steal Treaty 75 Chapter 6 “Conquering by Kindness” 98 PART II Chapter 7 “It Will Have to Be War!” 123 Chapter 8 Maneuvering and Scrapping 137 Chapter 9 Ways of Life, Ways of War 152 Chapter 10 Leaving Home 169 Chapter 11 Big Hole 186 Chapter 12 Toward Buffalo Country 201 Chapter 13 War in Wonderland 214 Chapter 14 “The Best Skirmishers in the World” 230 Chapter 15 Toward the Medicine Line 243