A Proud People Connected to the Land 

The Nez Perce (or, in their language, Niimíipuu, meaning “the real people” or “we the people”) believe the Creator molded them from the earth. The Niimíipuu lived for centuries as a loosely knit confederation of small bands. 

The Nez Perce depended on the land for their survival. The earth and rivers provided roots and berries, fish and game. Farming and land ownership were foreign to the Nez Perce. They believed the earth was not to be disturbed by hoe and plow. The land was their home, not a commodity to be bought or sold. 

Tensions Mount ~ War Erupts 

In the mid 1800s, Indian-settler disputes intensified in the West. In the Nez Perce homeland (present-day southeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon and north-central Idaho), the federal government failed to enforce an 1855 treaty prohibiting unlawful encroachment by settlers on Indian reservation land. 

In 1863, the U.S. government drafted another treaty that reduced the 7,000,000-acre Nez Perce Indian Reservation to a tenth its original size. After a decade of mistreatment and abuse endured by the Nez Perce, five chiefs refused to sign this treaty. During the 1870s there was increasing pressure to force these remaining “non-treaty Nez Perce” onto the reduced reservation. 

Although the Nez Perce agreed to move to the reservation, mounting tension between the Nez Perce and settlers finally erupted in violence that led to the first battle at White Bird Canyon, Idaho, June 17, 1877. Before fleeing eastward over the Buffalo Trail (K’usey’ne’ískit Trail) to Montana, the non-treaty Nez Perce fought several more battles with U.S. Army units commanded by General Oliver Otis Howard and settler volunteers. The Nez Perce believed the U.S. Army and its volunteers were only chasing them out of Idaho and that they would be safe in Montana. The Nez Perce intended to travel to a place where they could find peace, someday returning to their homeland. 

Flight to Freedom 

Fear spread among Montana settlers as reports of increasing unrest in Idaho reached the territory. Newspapers fanned the flames of fear by printing distorted stories. The Nez Perce were heading over the Lolo Trail toward Montana. 

Many Montana settlers were accustomed to Nez Perce visits. Some settlers claimed Nez Perce as friends, but panic prevailed. Newspaper editors demanded action by Montana Territorial Governor Benjamin Potts. Telegrams to President Rutherford B. Hayes demanded that the Army punish “the hostiles,” ignoring the fact that the Nez Perce were defending their homeland. 

Montana settlers formed volunteer militia groups. In Stevensville, Montana, settlers hastily rebuilt Fort Owen, a crumbling, walled trading post. In Corvallis and Skalkaho, Montana, the residents built sod forts to protect their families. 

Bitterroot Salish Chief Charlo and his people had been friendly to both settlers and Nez Perce. However, the Salish were also experiencing increasing pressure from settlers to give up their land in the Bitterroot Valley. 

Chief Charlo refused to sign the 1872 Garfield Treaty. His name was forged on the document. Chief Charlo and several hundred Salish people remained in the Bitterroot Valley in the face of growing hostility.

The Bitterroot Salish 

Traditionally, the Bitterroot Valley in western Montana was home to the Bitterroot Salish, but they ranged hundreds of miles in all directions to hunt buffalo, fish for salmon, trade and visit neighboring tribes. 

The 1855 Hellgate Treaty established a reservation about 75 miles north of Montana’s Bitterroot Valley for several other Salish bands, and they considered the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana a reservation for the Bitterroot Salish. However, in 1872, the federal government bowed to pressure from settlers and negotiated an agreement with the Bitterroot Salish to remove them to the Jocko Reservation. The last Salish left their Bitterroot Valley homeland in 1891. 

Nobody was sure how the Salish would react to the Nez Perce presence. By the time the Nez Perce reached Lolo Pass, Montana residents had been reading about supposed “terrible atrocities” for five weeks. The highly publicized fate of Lt. Colonel George A. Custer the year before at the Battle of the Little Big Horn magnified the settlers’ fears. While the Nez Perce intended to pass peacefully through Montana, the panic-stricken settlers feared for their lives. 

Chief Charlo allowed the Nez Perce to pass through the valley but warned them not to harm the settlers. His warriors assisted in the defense of strongholds like “Fort Fizzle.”

The Flight of the Nez Perce of 1877 symbolizes the dramatic collision of cultures which continues to shape the West and its people. A native people were forced to flee their homelands in a futile attempt to avoid war and save their traditional ways. Immigrated European people found themselves fighting neighbors who had been their friends for many years. Traditional trails, which had long been a source of joy and sustenance, became a trail of flight and conflict, a trail of sorrow

Chronology of Events 

The events in this timeline coincide with the sites seen on this auto tour: 

Credits and Sources: