712 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [eth.axn.H 



at Wallula, Washington territory, on April 23, 1M77, and as a result of 

 the council then held these non-treaty tribes, although insisting as 

 strongly as ever on their right to live undisturbed iu their own coun- 

 try, yet refrained from taking part in the war which broke out a few 

 weeks later. 



It is foreign to our purpose to recount the history of the Nez Perce 

 war of 1877. As is generally the case with Indian wars, it originated 

 iu the unauthorized intrusion of lawless whites on lands which the 

 Indians claimed as theirs by virtue of occupancy from time immemorial. 

 The Nez Perces, whom all authorities agree in representing as a supe- 

 rior tribe of Indians, originally inhabited the valleys of Clearwater and 

 Salmon rivers in Idaho, with the country extending west of Snake 

 river into Washington and Oregon as far as the Blue mountains. They 

 are first officially noticed in the report of the Indian Commissioner for 

 1843, where they arc, described as "noble, industrious, sensible," ami 

 •well disposed toward the whites, while "though brave as Caesar, the 

 whites have nothing to dread at their hands in case of their dealing out 

 to them what they conceive to be right and equitable." (Gomr., 18.) 

 It being deemed advisable to bring them into more direct relations 

 with the United States, the agent who made the report called the 

 chiefs together in this year and "assured them of the kind intentions of 

 our government, and of the sad consequences that would ensire to any 

 white man, from this time, who should invade their rights."' [Gomr., UK) 

 On the strength of these fair promises a portion of the tribe, in 1855, 

 entered into a treaty by which they ceded a large part of their terri 

 tory. and were guaranteed possession of the rest. In I860, however, 

 gold was discovered in the country, and the usual result followed. " In 

 defiance of law, and despite the protestations of the Indian agent, a 

 townsite was laid off in October, 1861, on the reservation, and Lewis 

 tou, with a population of 1,200, sprung iuto existence." (Comr.,20.) A 

 new treaty was then made in 180.'!. by which the intruders were secured 

 in possession of what they had thus seized, and the Nez Perces were 

 restricted within much narrower limits. By this treaty the Wallowa 

 valley, in northeastern Oregon, the ancestral home of that part of the 

 tribe under the leadership of Chief Joseph, was taken from the Indians. 

 This portion of the tribe, however, had refused to have part in the 

 negotiations, and "Chief Joseph and his band, utterly ignoring the 

 treaty of 1863, continued to claim the Wallowa- valley, where he was 

 tacitly permitted to roam without restraint, until the encroachments 

 of white settlers induced the government to take some definite action 

 respecting this band of non-treaty Nez Perces." (Gomr., 21.) At this 

 time the tribe numbered about 2,800, of whom about 500 acknowledged 

 Joseph as their chief. 



Collisions between the whites and Indians in the valley became more 

 frequent, and oneof Joseph's band hail been killed, when a commission 

 was appointed in 1876 to induce tin' Indians to give up the Wallowa 

 valley and remove to Lapwai reservation in Idaho. Joseph still refus- 



