Surrender of Chief Joseph

Surrender of Chief Joseph.

The surrender of the Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph at the Bear Paw Mountains in October 1877 concluded a months-long conflict involving the Nez Perce, the United States Army, and numerous territorial actors across the Pacific Northwest, Montana Territory, Idaho Territory, Oregon, and Washington Territory. The episode linked campaigns, battles, political negotiations, and legal processes that implicated figures such as General Oliver O. Howard, Colonel Nelson A. Miles, and Native leaders including Looking Glass, White Bird, and Toohoolhoolzote, shaping federal Indian policy and public memory in the late 19th century United States.

Background

In the early 1870s tensions rose between the Nez Perce bands and representatives of the United States after the 1855 and 1863 treaties with the Oregon Territorial and federal authorities altered reservation boundaries, affecting Nez Perce lands in the Wallowa Valley and along the Snake River. Prominent Nez Perce leaders such as Chief Joseph, Toohoolhoolzote, Looking Glass, White Bird, Ollokot, and Poker Joe resisted removal, while treaty proponents including Joel Palmer and Isaac Stevens had earlier negotiated compacts. Pressure from settlers in Oregon, Idaho Territory miners, and representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs intensified after gold discoveries along the Salmon River and the Snake River corridor, prompting military responses authorized by officials like President Ulysses S. Grant and implemented by commanders such as General Oliver O. Howard and Brigadier General George Crook.

Flight and Campaign

In June 1877, following attacks and reprisals on frontier settlements tied to contested land cessions and violent incidents near Wallowa County, Oregon and the Imnaha River, several Nez Perce bands decided to flee rather than relocate to the reduced reservation along the Columbia River. Chief Joseph, with allies including Ollokot and Looking Glass, led approximately 700 people in a strategic retreat covering more than 1,000 miles through territories that included Idaho Territory, Montana Territory, and Wyoming Territory. Along the route the Nez Perce engaged in tactical actions at engagements often named in military records and popular accounts, including the Battle of White Bird Canyon, the Battle of Cottonwood, the Battle of Clearwater, and the Battle of the Big Hole, while evading columns commanded by General Oliver O. Howard, Colonel John Gibbon, and units of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. The campaign involved interactions with regional actors such as Sacagawea's descendants, Shoshone communities, and Crow intermediaries, and crossed landmarks like the Lolo Pass and the Bieber Creek area as the Nez Perce sought refuge near the Canadian border and potential asylum with Crown agents in British Columbia.

Negotiations and Surrender

As winter approached in 1877, the Nez Perce made a final push toward Canada but were intercepted near the Bear Paw Mountains by forces under Colonel Nelson A. Miles and General Oliver O. Howard. During the siege at Bear Paw, negotiations involved emissaries such as Frank Riddle and Samuel A. Merritt and were complicated by the presence of civilian refugees and noncombatants. On October 5, after days of encirclement and mounting casualties from the Bear Paw battle and skirmishes with units from the 4th Infantry Regiment and Pacific Northwest volunteers, Chief Joseph delivered a speech that later entered public record and popular lore, submitting to terms brokered with Howard and Miles that promised humane treatment and relocation rather than execution. Prominent contemporary observers included reporters for the New York Times and writers associated with the Century Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly, while politicians from Congress debated the terms.

Aftermath and Legal Outcomes

Following surrender, the Nez Perce were initially transported to military posts including Fort Keogh and later moved to Fort Leavenworth and Pine Ridge Reservation; meanwhile other bands were settled near Colville Reservation and Lapwai, Idaho. Federal officials such as Edgar M. House and General Philip Sheridan influenced relocation decisions, and Congressional oversight by committees including the House Committee on Indian Affairs debated appropriations and treaty enforcement. Litigation and petitions by Nez Perce representatives sought redress under treaty provisions stemming from the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla and the 1863 Treaty revisions, but judicial avenues through the United States Court of Claims and appeals to presidents including Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur achieved limited restitution. Administrative decisions by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and policy shifts under secretaries such as Carl Schurz framed the long-term legal disposition, leaving many Nez Perce claims unresolved until 20th-century legislative actions and later settlements involving the Indian Claims Commission.

Legacy and Cultural Impact

The surrender and Chief Joseph’s reported words resonated through American culture, influencing writers and activists such as Helen Hunt Jackson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, and later historians like Alvin M. Josephy Jr. and Bruce Hampton Ashley. Literary and artistic responses included portrayals in periodicals, biographies, plays staged in New York City and San Francisco, and visual depictions by photographers such as Edward S. Curtis. The episode impacted federal policy debates involving the Bureau of Indian Affairs and helped catalyze advocacy for Native rights by organizations like the Indian Rights Association. Memorialization includes sites like the Nez Perce National Historical Park, monuments at the Bear Paw Battlefield, and cemetery markers in places such as Wallowa County, Oregon and Lapwai, Idaho, while film and television treatments have ranged from early silent films to documentaries aired by the PBS and referenced in works at the Smithsonian Institution. Scholarly analysis by historians in journals of the American Historical Association and cultural studies in programs at institutions like Harvard University and University of Washington continue to reassess the legal, ethical, and narrative dimensions of the surrender, its participants, and its consequences for Nez Perce sovereignty and American westward expansion.

Category:Nez Perce War Category:1877 in Montana Territory