The long journey of the Nez Perce - Kevin Carson

In 1877, the U.S.
Government opened the Nez Perce
lands in Oregon
to settlers and
ordered the tribe to move to a reservation in Idaho Territory.
Although
reluctant to leave their homeland, the Nez Perce began the long trek
eastward. A small band of young warriors vented their frustration,
however, in
two days of deadly attacks on settlements along the Salmon
River. Realizing
that the U.S. response would be
overwhelming-particularly in light of Custer's
defeat the year
before-the Nez Perce leaders, including Chiefs Joseph, Looking
Glass,
and White Bird, prepared their people for war. A U.S. Army battalion led
by Civil War general Oliver O. Howard along with several other
coordinated army
units began pursuit in an effort to subdue the Nez
Perce and forceably move
them to the reservation. The Nez Perce
resolved to escape to freedom in Canada.
Using their intimate knowledge
of the land and their native Appaloosa horses
skillfully, the Nez
Perce were able to successfully check and elude the much
larger
American force for more than three months as they wound their way across
the Rocky Mountains, through the newly established Yellowstone
National Park,
and into Montana. The war finally ended when the
exhausted Indians-men, women,
and children-were surrounded in the Bear
Paw Mountains. Looking Glass was shot
dead, and at this point, Chief
Joseph relinquished and gave his famous address
of surrender to General
Howard. While most of the Nez Perce ended up on a
reservation, the
band led by White Bird was able to make their way to Canada
and
freedom.

The
Nez Perce War is one of the most important and
emotional campaigns of
the Indian Wars. It essentially closed an era in
American history, and
the amount of time, money, and troops required to subdue
the Nez Perce
brought the plight of American Indians and the reservation system
to
the front pages of newspapers around the world. In The Long Journey of
the Nez Perce: A Battle History from Cottonwood to Bear Paw,
former U.S.
Army engineering officer Kevin Carson brings his intimate
knowledge of the
territory crossed by the Nez Perce along with his
skill as a cartographer to
reconstruct in detail the battles and
skirmishes along the entire route of the
conflict.