714 THE GHOST -DANCE RELIGION [eth. ann. 14 



killed one of the party in charge. Joseph could no longer restrain his 

 warriors, and on June 13, 1S77 — one day before the date that had been 

 appointed for going on the reservation — the enraged Nez Perces 

 attacked the neighboring settlement on White Bird creek. Idaho, and 

 killed 21 persons. 1 The war was begun. The troops under Howard 

 were ordered out. The first fight occurred on June 17 at Hangman's 

 creek and resulted in the loss of 34 soldiers. Then came another on 

 •Inly 1 with a loss of 13 more. Then on July 12 another encounter by 

 troops under General Howard himself, in which 11 soldiers were killed 

 and 26 wounded. (Com/:, 24.) 



Then began one of the most remarkable exhibitions of generalship in 

 the history of our Indian wars, a retreat worthy to be remembered 

 with that of the storied ten thousand. With hardly a hundred war- 

 riors, and impeded by more than 350 helpless women and children — with 

 General Howard behind, with Colonel (General) Miles in front, and 

 with Colonel Sturgis and the ("row scouts coming down upon his Hank — 

 Chief Joseph led his little band up the ( learwater and across the moun- 

 tains into Montana, turning at Big Hole pass long enough to beat back 

 his pursuers with a loss of 60 men; then on by devious mountain trails 

 southeast into Yellowstone park, where he again turned on Howard 

 and drove him back with additional loss of men and horses; then out 

 of Wyoming and north into Montana again, hoping to find safety on 

 Canadian soil, until intercepted in the neighborhood of the Yellowstone 

 by Colonel Sturgis in front with fresh troops and a detachment of < row 

 scouts, with whom they sustained two more encounters, this time with 

 heavy loss of men and horses to themselves; then again eluding their 

 pursuers, this handful of starving and worn-out warriors, now reduced 

 to scarcely fifty able men, carrying their wounded and their helpless 

 families, crossed the Missouri and entered the Bearpaw mountains. 

 But new enemies were on their trail, and at last, when within 50 miles 

 of the land of refuge, Miles, with a fresh army, cut off their retreat by a 

 decisive blow, capturing more than half their horses, killing a number 

 of the band, including Joseph's brother and the noted chief Looking 

 Glass, and wounding 40 others. (Comr., 25.) 



Forced either to surrender or to abandon the helpless wounded, the 

 women, and children, Joseph chose to surrender to Colonel .Miles, on 

 < >ctober 5, 1877. after a masterly retreat of more than a thousand miles. 

 He claimed that this was "a conditional surrender, with a distinct 

 promise that he should go back to Idaho in the spring." (Comr., 96.) 

 The statement of General Howard's aid-de-camp is explicit on this 

 point: 



It was promised Joseph that he would be taken to Tongue river and kept there till 

 spring, and then he returned to Idaho. General Sheridan, ignoring the promises made 



■The details of the attack "n the cattle guards is given by Helen Hum Jackson (Centurj of "Dis 

 honor, page 131). The Indian Commissioner, in his officisl report, says: "Open hostilities bj these 



Indians began by the mnrder "i 21 -white n and women on White Bird creek, neai Mount Idaho, in 



revenge for the murder of one of their tribe." (Comr Kept., 1877, pag< u 



