Hunting at High Altitudes 



they then began that memorable march to the 

 buffalo country on the eastern slope of the Rockies, 

 and thence toward a refuge across the Canada 

 boundary. A truce was declared in passing through 

 settlements on the western slope, and in passing 

 out of the head of the Bitter Root Valley and on 

 to the headwaters of the Jefferson, no depredations 

 were committed. On the Big Hole River, a tribu- 

 tary of the Jefferson, they were overtaken by a 

 force of soldiers sent out from Fort Shaw, under 

 General Gibbon. Although with an inferior force, 

 with his enemy armed with repeating rifles, more 

 effective in a fight in the brush than the army 

 rifle, he made a vigorous attack on their camp at 

 daylight. The Indians rallied, made a firm re- 

 sistance, and effectually repulsed the attack. Gibbon 

 could not renew the fight without reinforcements, 

 and the Indians continued on their pre-arranged 

 route. The Nez Perces were much exasperated at 

 the killing of a number of their women, either with 

 arms in their hands or by stray bullets. 24 After 

 this fight, these Indians killed every white man and 

 took all the horses that came within their reach. 

 Up to the time of their arrival at Henry's Lake, 

 eight or ten white men had been killed and the 

 teams of a freight outfit gobbled up. 



Chief Joseph showed much military skill in the 

 54 



