Saga of Chief Joseph

by Helen Addison Howard

  Howard had great confidence in this officer whom he describes as: “Dark-browed, strongly built, apparently forty years of age. . . . Whipple . . . Captain of Company L, First Cavalry, was a reliable man.”9

  Although Yellow Wolf denies the hostiles received any reenforcements from Looking Glass’s village, Josiah Red Wolf, a member of the band, affirmed in an interview in the Spokesman-Review Inland Empire Magazine (November 17, 1963): “A few of our men had been in White Bird’s fight.”

  Looking Glass was then peacefully encamped in his own territory on the banks of Clear Creek, a tributary of the Clearwater, where his people had gardens planted. Here he had taken refuge after the hostiles had joined him at Cottonwood Creek following the massacres by White Bird’s young men. Looking Glass’s village was four miles from the town of Kooskia and northeast of Mount Idaho. Although a few of his braves had joined the insurgent ranks, the chief had committed no overt act that might implicate him in the war. Indeed, some of the citizens declared that “thus far Looking Glass had maintained . . . a perfectly neutral attitude, if anything leaning toward the cause of the whites, although there were doubtless many would-be hostiles among the younger element.”10

  However, a different version of Looking Glass’s guilt, based on Indian testimony, appeared in the Lewiston Teller extra for June 27, 1877:

  Baird reports that the Clearwater Indians under Looking Glass had turned loose and plundered George Dempster’s place between the Middle and South forks of Clearwater and driven off all the stock of the settlers found between these forks and had it at their camp about six miles above Kamia. This confirms Jim Lawyer’s [head chief of the Kamiah treaty faction] statement made in the Indian Council yesterday at Lapwai as to the purposes of Looking Glass and his forty men. Baird says these Indians told two Chinamen near them on Clearwater that they had declared war against the whites and would commence their raids upon the inhabitants within two days. When this news reached Mt. Idaho a force of 20 volunteers started immediately for the Clearwater. No news from them when Baird left. General Howard was notified and said that he would send a detachment of regulars to scour the country in that direction this morning.

  It was also rumored, contrariwise, that Looking Glass sent word to the agent after Whipple’s fight that he wanted to come on the reservation and not fight. The agent sent for him, but nothing came of it. In the light of all the evidence, it would appear that Looking Glass sincerely desired peace.

  By making a night ride Whipple’s command arrived at the camp about dawn of July 1. Since the distance was ten miles farther than he supposed, the captain was unable to make the approach of his force a complete surprise, or to attack before dawn.

  The Indians were unaware of the troops until the “shrill notes of the bugle rang out across the canyon and were caught and echoed back by the surrounding hills and bluffs. In an instant the camp was astir, and by the hazy light of approaching dawn the Indians could be seen running back and forth.”11

  Whipple arranged to parley, and Looking Glass, according to Indian testimony, sent a warrior, Peopeo Tholekt, forward to meet Whipple, and Randall, a captain of the Mount Idaho volunteers. But the white interpreter demanded Looking Glass. Instead of appearing the chief sent an old man to join Peopeo, with instructions to tell the whites to go away and leave them alone. However, historian Brosnan declares the chief did discuss the matter of surrender, but explained that he had not been involved in the troubles, and, since his band was already upon the reservation, he did not think his people should be made prisoners of war. He asked for time to talk with his tribesmen. Looking Glass may have been afraid to surrender, because he had guaranteed to Howard the good conduct of Tuhulhutsut while the latter had been a prisoner at Fort Lapwai during the council in May. Looking Glass is reported to have said after the outbreak of murders, “General Howard will surely hang us.”

  While the parley was being held Washington Holmes, a volunteer, took it upon himself, in apparent revenge, to fire into the Indian camp.12 Negotiations were immediately broken off, and fighting began.

  Mr. Redfield, an employee at the Nez Perce subagency, corroborates this:

  I have talked with several Indians who were present at the time who explained to me all the details. They were friendly Indians who had met with the hostiles and had induced them to surrender the guilty parties, which was agreed upon, but when the troops arrived and an Indian went forward with a white cloth on a stick, in token of surrender, they were fired upon by some volunteers, who were with the command. Of course a fight ensued.13

  Mr. Redfield’s description is somewhat in error, since the volunteer fired during the parley.

  The Indians fled eastward to the mountains, abandoning their possessions, their lodges, and over seven hundred ponies. One child was killed by the soldiers, the only casualty of the skirmish according to one account. But McWhorter’s Indian sources declare Peopeo Tholekt, Red Heart, and Tahkoopen were wounded in addition to a seventeen-year-old boy killed.14 Whipple, disappointed that he had been unable to make the chief and his band prisoners, destroyed the camp and drove the horses to Mount Idaho. Looking Glass with his main force hid in the Clearwater Mountains while awaiting an opportunity to join the hostiles. This unfortunate move on Howard’s part drove Looking Glass to the side of Joseph, where he and his forty braves supplied reenforcements to the warring chiefs.

  At Mount Idaho, Captain Whipple received information from Howard that Perry would arrive at Norton’s Cottonwood Ranch with an ammunition train. Whipple was instructed to hurry in that direction with his cavalry so as to arrive before Joseph, who, it was thought probable, would recross the Salmon again to effect a junction with Looking Glass.

  From spies the chiefs learned Whipple’s position and that of Perry’s supply train coming from Fort Lapwai. If the chiefs were to join forces with Looking Glass in the Clearwater Mountains, they would have to move their people across the route taken by Perry, and at the same time prevent Whipple from attacking the caravan of men, women, and children when they reached the open Camas Prairie. With that intention the hostiles moved from Craig’s Ferry to the north of Cottonwood Ranch, thus placing themselves between the commands of the two officers.

  This ranch, generally known as Cottonwood House, was situated on high and easily defensible prairie land between wooded foothills on the road connecting Lewiston with Mount Idaho. Whipple reached this point July 2 and waited for Perry and the twenty men bringing the expected supply train of ammunition. On the morning of July 3, Whipple sent two citizen scouts, Blewett and Foster, to reconnoiter the vicinity of Craig’s Ferry where the Nez Perces had swum the Salmon River, in order to determine the number and exact location of the hostiles.

  Foster returned toward evening on a lathered horse with the information that he had been fired at, and the Indians, about twelve miles away, were heading for Craig Mountain nearby. Blewett, he reported, had probably been killed, as they had become separated and he had not seen the scout since the attack.

  Whipple, realizing Perry’s danger, directed Second Lieutenant Sevier M. Rains and ten picked men, accompanied by Scout Foster, “to proceed at once toward the point where the Indians had been seen, for the purpose of ascertaining the strength of the enemy, and to aid young Blewett. I particularly cautioned Rains not to precede the command too far, to keep on high ground, and to report the first sign of the Indians.”15 Whipple put his force in motion soon afterward and followed the direction taken by Rains’s detail.

  The Indians anticipated an attack and had concealed a large force of warriors led by Five Wounds, Rainbow, and Two Moons on both sides of the road two miles north of Cottonwood.16 When Rains’s detachment, a few minutes in advance of Whipple, entered a shallow ravine the Indians sprang the trap, pouring a hail of bullets on the cavalrymen. Rains dismounted his men and dashed for a boulder in an open clearing to escape the withering fire of the enemy.

  Whipple’s troops, in the act of mounting, heard the sound of firing and charg
ed forward at a gallop. After covering about two miles they saw the hostiles a half mile away in force and well entrenched. The captain realized his few men would suffer a disastrous loss if he charged the Indians’ fortified position, and so he had to witness the fearful sight of Rains’s doomed cavalrymen being picked off one by one until the last of them fell dead.

  It was a serious blow to Captain Whipple. With his scouts, Blewett and Foster, killed and the Rains detail massacred, he dared not risk more lives until he knew more definitely the enemy’s strength. Yet, if he retreated to Mount Idaho he would expose Perry to the same fate as Rains, besides losing the valuable supply train. Whipple decided to continue a short distance onward from the spot where the massacre had taken place and he halted in a more defensible position on open ground. He dismounted on the east side of a ravine, deployed his men in two long lines, and placed his mountain guns in the center in readiness for any attack. The Indians were on the west side of the canyon, but too far away for effective action. The combatants, one thousand yards apart, continued to menace each other for two hours until dusk, when the Indians withdrew and Whipple encamped for the night. In the morning (July 4) he started out again to meet Perry.

  That officer, coming from Fort Lapwai with the pack train, was unaware of any danger, for the last reports he had received stated that the hostiles were in the Salmon River Mountains, where Howard was even then chasing them. Riding over the brow of a hill, he looked down in amazement to see Whipple’s troops, several miles from Cottonwood, stretched out in battle formation. He rushed his detail of twenty men forward and gained the lines without being fired upon. Perry, as senior officer, then assumed command, and the united force marched back to Whipple’s former position at Cottonwood. Here Perry received instructions from Howard to wait for further orders from him.

  During the interim the volunteer forces had been doing their bit in scouting duty. McConville’s company, acting under orders from Howard, had joined Trimble at Slate Creek on June 30. A short time later the volunteers crossed the Salmon River at Horseshoe Bend and made connections with the general’s command to reconnoiter the country in advance of the troops. The citizens soon found the Indians’ trail and bivouacked at the intersection of Canoe Encampment and Rocky Canyon trails. Here, about an hour later, a dispatch arrived from Whipple, informing Howard of the Nez Perces’ attack on him and the massacre of Lieutenant Rains’s detachment.

  Hunter’s Dayton, Washington, volunteers and McConville’s own Lewiston company set out to reinforce Whipple. While riding along Rocky Canyon the citizens narrowly evaded an ambush and a fate like Rains’s, when McConville, becoming suspicious of several Indians who ran away as they advanced into the canyon, ordered his men to take a different trail. Later, they learned these Nez Perces were decoys to lure the citizens deeper into the rocky defile where a larger squad lay hidden.17

  At noon on the Fourth of July the Indians collected in force at Norton’s and completely surrounded the camp of the soldiers, where, Whipple reports, “for hours they made the most frantic efforts to dislodge us. Every man of the command was kept on the lines this afternoon (rifle-pits having been dug at a little distance from the Cottonwood house) until about sundown, when the enemy withdrew for the night.”18

  The Nez Perces appeared at Cottonwood again in the morning (July 5), after sending up from a butte three signal smokes into a clear sky to signify their readiness to fight. Henry C. Johnson, a volunteer, reports in his manuscript19 that the Nez Perces were “camped on a high plateau about three miles in a westerly direction from Cottonwood. . . .”

  For hours the soldiers of Perry’s command waited, anticipating an attack as they watched the rapidly growing ranks of the foe. Whipple’s men were busy constructing some defenses east of Norton’s. Suddenly two mounted men, pursued by warriors, galloped madly from the direction of Johnson’s ranch. These were messengers sent to Howard who was still beyond the Salmon. They safely reached the soldiers’ lines. Other couriers dared not leave the fortifications, and the troops, believing themselves outnumbered by nearly three to one, wisely refrained from making any sorties.

  About noon the expected attack began when the warriors charged all exposed positions at the same time. Braves crawled stealthily through the tall grass until they were discovered when within fifty feet of the soldiers. From their elevated position the troops repulsed every charge until the main body of Indians finally withdrew, although desultory firing continued for a long time.

  The citizens of Mount Idaho had not heard from Whipple for two days. Then on July 5, Captain Randall received word that the Indians were in force at Cottonwood and had attacked Whipple’s and Perry’s commands. Randall’s detail of seventeen men immediately left to relieve the troops.

  Within two miles of the soldiers’ position, the seventeen volunteers were promptly attacked by a band of warriors, estimated at 125, who left the main body, then engaged in driving the herds across the prairie. Randall ordered a charge through the Indians’ lines, apparently hoping it would carry his force through to the troops. They had almost gained their objective when Randall and B. F. Evans fell mortally wounded. The volunteers dismounted on an eminence and hoped to hold their position until help should come from the regulars.

  A short time after the couriers had arrived from Howard, Whipple was standing on the hill where the defenses were being built, when he noticed a commotion on the summit where a few of the volunteers had gathered. Captain Perry came walking toward him, and Whipple asked the cause of the excitement.

  Perry replied, “Some citizens, a couple of miles away on the Mount Idaho road, are surrounded by Indians, and are being all cut to pieces, and nothing can be done to help them!”

  “Why not?”

  “It is too late!”20

  Perry delayed sending help, fearing that if he left his barricade the ammunition would fall into the hands of the hostiles, and that if he divided his force of one hundred, neither division could resist an attack by what he believed to be 250 or 300 warriors, let alone saving the citizens from massacre. In all probability, too, he had learned respect for the fighting abilities of the Nez Perces after his defeat at White Bird Canyon. His delay in aiding the civilians was in all likelihood prompted by caution.

  Whipple pleaded with his senior officer to risk the ammunition and save the lives of the fighting volunteers. The soldiers and citizens within the defenses impatiently watched the skirmish while Perry deliberated. Unable to restrain themselves, about twenty-five volunteers dashed from their safe position to join the battle. They were led by Sergeant Simpson, who cried, “If your officers won’t lead you, I will!”21 Their daring act at last caused Perry to move, and he sent to the rescue a cavalry detachment under Captain Whipple. Only after the civilians had stood off 132 Indians for a full hour—according to an item in the Lewiston Teller extra for July 6, 1877—did the Nez Perces retire before the onslaught of Whipple’s cavalry.

  Then the united force of soldiers and citizens retreated to the ammunition train at Norton’s before a counterattack could be launched, although firing continued for an hour and a half. McConville’s volunteers arrived, but too late to render any assistance to the ill-fated Randall.

  Later, Perry was tried before a court-martial, and accused of not making any effort to save the civilian party. After considering the captain’s reasons for not acting promptly, the court-martial exonerated him. Lew Wilmot, a second lieutenant under Randall, declared that the volunteers were between the Indians and Perry’s force after the first charge. The only mention made of this controversial incident in the first report to Governor Brayman by L. P. Brown, of Mount Idaho, was:

  After the Battle had nearly ceased the troops came on the field with two Gatling Guns but no effort was made by them to continue the fight or pursue them [the Indians] and [the troops] soon returned to their quarters at Cottonwood, with our [the volunteers’] dead and wounded.22

  There is no mention here that Perry was at fault. The charge made a
gainst him was apparently an afterthought, possibly fostered by the newspapers of the region. The incident caused further dissension between the military and their civilian allies.

  While the warriors had been engaging the attention of the troops, the main body of Indians had prepared their stock and families for a dash across the prairie from the timbered slopes of Craig Mountain. By feigning a sustained attack, the Nez Perces kept the soldiers and scouts inside the barricades at Cottonwood and prevented them from learning the chiefs’ plans until late in the afternoon. Then, six or eight miles away, the troops saw the herds of ponies and cattle, accompanied by the women and children, dash from the woods and gallop over the prairie in the direction of the Clearwater. Since the officers, Perry and Whipple, estimated that the tribe was guarded by 250 warriors, they did not consider it discreet to pursue them with but a hundred soldiers and citizens. Besides, it would expose their supply of ammunition. So the troops contented themselves by watching the flight of Joseph’s, Tuhulhutsut’s, and White Bird’s bands to join Looking Glass.

  After learning how the chiefs had eluded him at the Salmon River and temporarily cut him off from Fort Lapwai, Howard at once turned about and by night marching reached Grangeville on July 9. There he reunited with Perry’s command for the purpose of running the Nez Perces to earth and forcing them into a decisive battle, since they threatened to burn ranch buildings and the crops, as soon as the dry season would permit.