Musselshell Meadows, Traditional Nez Perce Camp
Forest Roads 100 and 500
You can walk on the same route the Nez Perce and the U.S. Army took at a number of trail segments. These are clearly marked with the Nez Perce National Historic Trail Logo. Many of these segments are the same route taken by Lewis and Clark on their expedition in 1805 and return trip in 1806. Lewis and Clark Trail markers define these segments.
Musselshell Meadows is the site of the first nontreaty Nez Perce camp after leaving the Weippe Prairie. Imagine for a moment you are a young Nez Perce about to leave the land where you were born, where you played as a child, where you shed or gathered camas as an adolescent. Imagine leaving the land where your grandparents were buried, not knowing if you would ever return. These thoughts must have captured the minds of the Nez Perce as they camped in this meadow. General Howard and his men camped in this same site two weeks later on July 31, 1877
On July 17 not far from Incendiary Creek, General Howard sent a scouting party ahead of
his other troops. They were to collect as much information as possible on the fleeing nontreaty Nez Perce. The army employed Nez Perce scouts from bands who had signed the Treaty of 1863. Suddenly, shots rang out from the brush and one of the Nez Perce scouts, Sheared Wolf or John Levi, was shot and killed.
“...See, we have passed over some of the worst trails and still they keep after us...Let our families travel on while the warriors go back to where we can lay for the enemies. We hid in the brush to get them at close range. Soon the voices grew. It was Nez Perce scouts. Christians of our tribe, working for the government against their own tribe, their own blood people. Rainbow took a shot and wounded one of them. Other shots were red and I do not know if any others of them were struck.”
– Two Moons (Lepeet Hessemdooks)
Until settlers and Christian missionaries arrived, the bands of Nez Perce had co-existed peacefully with most of their neighbors including the Salish to the east. The signing of the 1863 treaty literally turned brother against brother.
“Known to the whites as Sam Morris, I am half-brother to Yellow Wolf, having the same father. While he was with Chief Joseph, I was scout for General Howard; serving around Lapwai and to the Musselshell, Lolo Trail. It was there that I saw John Levi, or Sheared Wolf, killed about twenty miles from Weippe. He got more than one bullet from concealed warriors.”
– Horse Blanket (Seekumses Kunnin)
