MOONET] GRASS LEASES NEZ PERCE REMOVED 351 



Ou this subject the agent says, uuder date of August 17, 1883: 



The grass (|uestioii seems to be the most difficult thing I have to coutemlwith. I 

 fiml it impossible to keep trespassiug cattle entirely otf the reservatiou, ami we are 

 noTV crowded on all sides. It seems to do very little good to jjut tlieni off, for it is 

 found that cattle that have just been driven off will come back on the reservatiou as 

 800U as the police force advances. Our Indians are not disposed to rent the grass, 

 yet if it is used it seems they should be ]iaid for it The grass should be util- 

 ized in some way that will benefit the Indians, and if it is not possible to sup- 

 pl}' them with herds sufficient to consume it, it does seem as if the grass should be 

 rented and the Indians receive the money for it {Report, lOS). 



The tiual result was the establishmeut of the system of grass leases. 



SUJOIER 18S3 



A'dallcatoi K'ddo, "Nez Perce suu dance," so called on account of 

 a visit from the Nez Perces, called by the Kiowa the "people with liair 

 cut oft' across the forehead." The figure above the medicine pole on 

 the Anko calendar is intended to represent a man in the act of cutting 

 oft' his front hair. The Set-t'an calendar has beside the medicine lodge 

 the flgitre of a man wearing the peculiar striped blanket 

 of the JSTez Perces. This sun dance is sometimes known 

 as 2I(ip\)(lal K'ddo, "Split-nose sun dance," because held 

 on the Washita on pasture lands inclosed by a cattle 

 man known to the Indians by that name. 



On account of difficulties with the whites, the Nez 

 Perces of Chief Joseph's band had left their homes in 

 eastern Oregon in the summer of 1877, and after a retreat j-m i74_snnimer 

 of a thousand miles were interce])ted in Montana by iss^-Nez Perc6 

 General Miles, when within a few miles of the British """ ^'"'"• 

 border, and compelled to surrender. They were brought as prisoners 

 to Fort Leavenworth, and thence removed, in July, 1878, to a reserva- 

 tion assigned to them in Indian Territory. The climate and surround- 

 ings proving entirely unsuited to them, they were returned to reserva- 

 tions in Washington and Idaho in 1885, their numbers in the meantime 

 having been reduced from about four hundred and fifty to three hun- 

 dred and one, about one-third of their whole number having died. It 

 was while domiciled in Indian Territory that they visited the Kiowa 

 and other tribes, dancing with the Kiowa and Apache at the head of 

 Scmdt P^a, "Apache creek" (upper Cache creek), and attending the 

 Kiowa sun dance, which was held on the north side of the Washita, 

 about ten miles above Eainy-mountain creek, near where now is Cloud 

 Chief. This was the first time the Kiowa had ever seen the N^ez 

 Perces, although they had a dim traditional memory of them in their 

 old northern home. 



In the spring of this year the keeper of the talme medicine, Set- 

 dayii-ite, " Many-bears," died, and the image was taken by Taimete, 

 " Taiwie-man," who continued to hold it until his death in 1894. 



