WThe Nez Perce War was an armed conflict that pitted several bands of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans and their allies, a small band of the Palouse tribe led by Red Echo (Hahtalekin) and Bald Head, against the United States Army. The conflict, fought between June and October 1877, stemmed from the refusal of several bands of the Nez Perce, dubbed "non-treaty Indians," to give up their ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest and move to an Indian reservation in Idaho. This forced removal was in violation of the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla, which granted the tribe 7.5 million acres in their ancestral lands and the right to hunt and fish in lands ceded to the government.
WThe 1st Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army regiment that has its antecedents in the early 19th century in the formation of the United States Regiment of Dragoons. To this day, the unit's special designation is "First Regiment of Dragoons". While they were the First Regiment of Dragoons another unit designated the 1st Cavalry Regiment was formed in 1855 and in 1861 was re-designated as the 4th Cavalry Regiment. The First Dragoons became the 1st Cavalry Regiment since they were the oldest mounted regiment.
WThe 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen", after the Irish air "Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune.
WBig Hole National Battlefield preserves a Nez Perce War battlefield located in Montana, United States. The Nez Perce fought a delaying action against the 7th Infantry Regiment here on August 9 and 10, 1877, during their failed attempt to escape to Canada. This action, the Battle of the Big Hole, was the largest battle fought between the Nez Perce and U.S. Government forces in the five-month conflict known as the Nez Perce War. In 1992 the park was made a part of Nez Perce National Historical Park, which consists of 38 locations in five states, following the flight of the Nez Perce tribe from the U.S. Cavalry, the route of which was designated Nez Perce National Historic Trail in 1986.
WEdmund or Edmond Butler was a U.S. Army officer who served with the Union Army during the American Civil War and later became a prominent Indian fighter in the Northern Plains, Rocky Mountains and southwest United States in the post-Civil War era. In 1894, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry against the Sioux and Cheyenne at Battle of Wolf Mountain.
WStephen Fowler Chadwick was an American Democratic politician who served as the fifth Governor of Oregon from 1877 to 1878. Governor Chadwick was the first person to obtain the governorship by way of the state's Line of Succession.
WCow Creek is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately 35 miles (56 km) long, in north central Montana in the United States. Cow Creek rises in the southern foothills of the Bear Paw Mountains in western Blaine County and flows east and then south, joining the Missouri approximately 25 air miles (40 km) northeast of Winifred, Montana—or 22 miles (35 km) upstream from the Fred Robinson Bridge.
WCow Island lies in a left turning bend of the Missouri River, in the area known as the Missouri River Breaks. The island is formed by sediments that are seasonally washed out from the mouths of Cow Creek and Bull Creek, which enter the Missouri River just upstream from Cow Island. The island is about 1.2 miles long and averages about 150 yards in width. It is located in extreme northern Fergus County, but lies across the river from extreme southern Blaine County, to its east.
WNapoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana was a career U.S. Army officer who fought with distinction during the Mexican–American War and served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was wounded several times during his military career, often severely, and later in life was involved with railroads and veteran soldier affairs in the U.S.
WGustavus Cheyney Doane was a U.S. Army Cavalry Captain, explorer, inventor and Civil War soldier who played a prominent role in the exploration of Yellowstone as a member of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition.
WThe Dying Grass is a 2015 novel by William T. Vollmann. The novel concerns the Nez Perce War of 1877.
WFort Walla Walla is a United States Army fort located in Walla Walla, Washington. The first Fort Walla Walla was established July 1856, by Lieutenant Colonel Edward Steptoe, 9th Infantry Regiment. A second Fort Walla Walla was occupied September 23, 1856. The third and permanent military Fort Walla Walla was built in 1858 and adjoined Steptoeville, now Walla Walla, Washington, a community that had grown up around the second fort. An Executive Order on May 7, 1859 declared the fort a military reservation containing 640 acres devoted to military purposes and a further 640 acres each of hay and timber reserves. On September 28, 1910 soldiers from the 1st Cavalry lowered the flag closing the fort. In 1917, the fort briefly reopened to train men of the First Battalion Washington Field Artillery in support of action in World War I. In 1921, the fort and property were turned over to the Veterans Administration where 15 original buildings from the military era remain. Today, the complex contains a park, a museum, and the Jonathan M. Wainright Memorial VA Medical Center.
WJohn Gibbon was a career United States Army officer who fought in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.
WOliver Otis Howard was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. As a brigade commander in the Army of the Potomac, Howard lost his right arm while leading his men against Confederate forces at the Battle of Fair Oaks/Seven Pines in June 1862, an action which later earned him the Medal of Honor. As a corps commander, he suffered two major defeats at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in May and July 1863, but recovered from the setbacks as a successful corps and later army commander in the Western Theater.
WHin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce, a Native American tribe of the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States, in the latter half of the 19th century. He succeeded his father Tuekakas in the early 1870s.
WThe Jurden Henry Elfers Barn and Field is a historic site located on the south bank of John Day Creek, .33 miles (0.53 km) east of U.S. Route 95 and north of Lucile, Idaho. The barn and field were the site of a raid by members of the Nez Perce tribe in 1877. White settlers had forced the Nez Perce to live on a reservation at Lapwai, and a group of young men from the tribe sought revenge against the settlers. The men raided several sites along the Salmon River, including the Elfers' ranch. During their raid on the ranch, the Nez Perce killed Jurden Henry Elfers, his nephew Henry "Harry" Burn Beckrodge, and hired worker Robert Bland, who were working at the barn and field at the time. The men also stole several horses and a rifle from the property. The raid was one of the main causes of the Nez Perce War, as soldiers at Fort Lapwai responded to the raids by attacking Chief Joseph's camp. The barn and field are one of the few surviving sites connected to the events leading to the start of the war.
WLooking Glass was a principal Nez Perce architect of many of the military strategies employed by the Nez Perce during the Nez Perce War of 1877. He, along with Chief Joseph, directed the 1877 retreat from eastern Oregon into Montana and onward toward the Canada–US border during the Nez Perce War. He led the Alpowai band of the Nez Perce, which included the communities of Asotin, Alpowa, and Sapachesap along the Clearwater River in Idaho. He inherited his name from his father, the prominent Nez Percé chief Apash Wyakaikt or Ippakness Wayhayken and was therefore called by the whites Looking Glass.
WNelson Appleton Miles was an American military general who served in the American Civil War, the American Indian Wars, and the Spanish–American War. From 1895 to 1903, he served as the last Commanding General of the United States Army before the office was abolished.
WThe Nez Perce in Yellowstone Park was the flight of the Nez Perce Indians through Yellowstone National Park between August 20 and Sept 7, during the Nez Perce War in 1877. As the U.S. army pursued the Nez Perce through the park, a number of hostile and sometimes deadly encounters between park visitors and the Indians occurred. Eventually, the army's pursuit forced the Nez Perce off the Yellowstone plateau and into forces arrayed to capture or destroy them when they emerged from the mountains of Yellowstone onto the valley of Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River.
WThe Nez Perce National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park comprising 38 sites located throughout the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, which included traditional aboriginal lands of the Nez Perce people. The sites are strongly associated with the resistance of Chief Joseph and his band, who in June 1877 took off from Oregon in an attempt to reach freedom in Canada and avoid being forced on to a reservation. They were pursued by U.S. Army cavalry forces and fought numerous skirmishes against them.
WOllokot,, was a war leader of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce Indians and a leader of the young warriors in the Nez Perce War in 1877.
WSamuel Davis Sturgis was a senior officer of the United States Army. A veteran of the Mexican War, Civil War, and Indian Wars, he attained the rank of brevet major general.
WTough Trip Through Paradise 1878-1879 is the autobiography of Andrew Garcia (1853-1943), a man of Hispanic descent who was born in El Paso, but moved north to Montana in 1876 and became a mountain man. He wrote down his story in his later years, but never seriously sought publication due to a combination of disapproval from family members and fear of his story being exploited by dime novelists. The book covers Garcia's time in Montana from 1878 through 1879.
WThe Wallowa River is a tributary of the Grande Ronde River, approximately 55 miles (89 km) long, in northeastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a valley on the Columbia Plateau in the northeast corner of the state north of Wallowa Mountains.
WWhite Bird, also referred to as White Pelican, was leader, war chief and tooat of the Lamátta or Lamtáama band of the Nez Perce tribe with the Lamata village along the Salmon River. His band and the village took its name from Lahmatta, by which White Bird Canyon was known to the Nez Perce.
WCharles Erskine Scott Wood or C.E.S. Wood was an American author, civil liberties advocate, artist, soldier, attorney, and Georgist. He is best known as the author of the 1927 satirical bestseller, Heavenly Discourse.
WYellow Wolf or He–Mene Mox Mox was a Nez Perce warrior who fought in the Nez Perce War of 1877. In his old age, he decided to give the war a Native American perspective. From their meeting in 1907 till his death in 1935, Yellow Wolf talked annually to Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, who wrote a book for him, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story. He is notable as one of the few members of the defeated Nez Perce to talk openly to strangers and tell their story to the world.