MmoM.Y ] 



CAUSE OF THE NEZ PERCE WAR 713 



iug to remove, the matter was turned over to General Howard. On 

 .May 3, 1877, be held the first council with Joseph and his followers at 

 Fort Lapwai. Their ceremonial approach, which was probably in accord 

 with the ritual teachings of the Dreamer religion, is thus described by 

 the general : 



A long rank of men, followed by women and children, with faces painted, the red 

 paint extending back into the partings of the hair— the men's hair braided and tied 

 up with showy .strings— ornamented in dress, in hats, in blankets with variegated 

 colors, in leggings of buckskin and moccasins beaded and plain; women with bright 

 shawls or blankets, and skirts to the ankle and top moccasins. All were mounted on 

 Indian ponies as various in color as the dress of the riders. The^e picturesque people, 

 after keeping us waiting long enough for effect, came in sight from up the valley from 

 the direction of their temporary camp just above the company gardens. They drew 

 near to the hollow square of the post and in front of the small company to be inter- 

 viewed. Then they struck up their song. They were not armed except with a few 

 tomahawk pipes that could be smoked with the peaceful tobacco or penetrate the 

 skull bone of an enemy, at the will of the holder. Yet somehow this wild sound 

 produced a strange effect. It made one feel glad that there were lint fifty of them, 

 and not five hundred. It was shrill and searching; sad, like a wail, and yet defiant 

 in its close. The Indians swept around outside the fence and made the entire circuit, 

 still keeping up the song as they rode. The buildings broke the refrain into irreg- 

 ular bubblings of sound until the ceremony was completed. I Howard, 1.) 



At this conference Toohulhulsote, the principal Dreamer priest of 

 Joseph's band, acted as spokesman for the Indians, ami insisted, accord- 

 ing to the Smohalla doctrine, that the earth was his mother, that she 

 should not be disturbed by hoe or plow, that men should subsist by 

 the spontaneous productions of nature, and that the sovereignty of the 

 earth could not be sold or given away. Continuing, he asserted, "We 

 never have made any trade. Part of the Indians gave up their land. 

 I never did. The earth is part of my body, and I never gave up the 

 earth. So loug as the earth keeps me I want to be left alone." Gen- 

 eral Howard finally ordered him under arrest, after which the Indians 

 at last agreed to go on a reservation by June 14. (Howard, 2.) A few 

 days later, councils were held with Smohalla and his people, and with 

 Moses, another noted ••renegade" chief with a considerable following- 

 farther up the Columbia. Both chiefs, representing at least 500 war- 

 riors, disclaimed any hostile, intentions and agreed to goon reservations. 

 Smohalla said, '-Your law is my law. I say to you, yes. I will be on 

 a reservation by September." (Howard, 3.) Parties under Joseph and 

 other leading chiefs then went out to select suitable locations for reser 

 vations, Joseph and his band deciding in favor of Lapwai valley. Every- 

 thing was moving smoothly toward a speedy and peaceful settlement 

 of all difficulties, and the commission had already reported the success 

 ful accomplishment of the work, when a single act of lawless violence 

 undid the labor of weeks and precipitated a bloody war. (Comr., 22.) 



One of Joseph's band hail been murdered by whites some time before. 

 but the Indians had remained quiet, i Comr., 23.) Now. while the Xez 

 Perees were gathering up their stock to remove to the reservation 

 selected, a band of white robbers attacked them, ran off the cattle, and 



