Editing Nez Perce War (section)

{{Short description|1877 armed conflict between the U.S. Army and Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict= Nez Perce War
|partof= the [[American Indian Wars]]
|image=Chief.Joseph.Band.1877.jpg
|image_size=270px
|caption=Chiefs Joseph, Looking Glass,<br>and White Bird in the spring of 1877
|date= June 14 – October 5, 1877
|place= [[Oregon]], [[Idaho Territory|Idaho]], [[Wyoming Territory|Wyoming]], and [[Montana Territory|Montana]]
|result= United States victory
|combatant1= {{flag|United States|1877}}
|combatant2= [[Nez Percé]]<br />[[Palus people|Palouse]]
|commander1= {{flagicon|United States|1877}} [[Luther Hare]]<br />{{flagicon|United States|1877}} [[Oliver Otis Howard]]<br />{{flagicon|United States|1877}} [[John Gibbon]]<br />{{flagicon|United States|1877}} [[Nelson A. Miles]]<br />{{flagicon|United States|1877}} [[Samuel D. Sturgis]]
|commander2= [[Chief Joseph]]<br />[[Looking Glass (Native American leader)|Looking Glass]] †<br />[[White Bird (Native American leader)|White Bird]]<br />[[Ollokot]] †<br />[[Toohoolhoolzote]] †<br />[[Poker Joe]] † (Lean Elk)<br />Red Echo (''Hahtalekin'')<br />Bald head (''Husishusis Kute'')
|strength1= 1,500 soldiers, civilian volunteers, Indian scouts
|strength2= 250 warriors, +500 non-combatant women and children—numbers are approximate
|casualties1=125 killed, 146 wounded<ref name=Summer>''Nez Perce, Summer 1877: The US Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis'', Jerome A. Greene, Appendix A: "US Army Casualties, Nez Perce War 1877"</ref>
|casualties2=103–133 combatants and noncombatants killed, 71–91 combatants and noncombatants wounded (possibly more)<ref name=Summer/><br />418 surrendered, 150–200 escaped to Canada<ref>Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. ''The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest''. New Haven: Yale U Press, 1965, p. 632</ref>
|cost1= $1.9 million<ref>''The last Indian war: the Nez Perce story'', West, Elliott, Oxford University Press, 2009</ref>
}}
{{Campaignbox Nez Perce Campaign}}

The '''Nez Perce War''' was an [[armed conflict]] in 1877 in the [[Western United States]] that pitted several bands of the [[Nez&nbsp;Perce]] tribe of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] and their allies, a small band of the ''[[Palus people|Palouse]]'' tribe led by Red Echo (''Hahtalekin'') and Bald Head (''Husishusis Kute''), against the [[United States Army]]. Fought between June and October, the conflict stemmed from the refusal of several bands of the Nez Perce, dubbed "non-treaty Indians," to give up their ancestral lands in the [[Pacific Northwest]] and move to an [[Indian reservation]] in [[Idaho Territory]]. This forced removal was in violation of the 1855 [[Treaty of Walla Walla]], which granted the tribe 7.5 million acres of their ancestral lands and the right to hunt and fish on lands ceded to the U.S. government.

After the first armed engagements in June, the Nez Perce embarked on an arduous trek north initially to seek help with the [[Crow tribe]]. After the Crows' refusal of aid, they sought sanctuary with the [[Lakota people|Lakota]] led by [[Sitting Bull]], who had fled to [[Canada]] in May 1877 to avoid capture following the 1876 [[Battle of the Little Bighorn]].

The Nez Perce were pursued by elements of the U.S. Army with whom they fought a series of battles and skirmishes on a fighting retreat of {{convert|1170|mi}}. The war ended after a final five-day battle fought alongside Snake Creek at the base of Montana's [[Bears Paw Mountains]] only {{convert|40|mi|km}} from the Canada–US border. A large majority of the surviving Nez Perce represented by [[Chief Joseph]] of the ''Wallowa'' band of Nez Perce, surrendered to Brigadier Generals [[Oliver Otis Howard]] and [[Nelson A. Miles]].<ref>[http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/wallowa-whitman/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5227769 Forest Service: Nez Perce Historic National Trail]</ref> [[White Bird (Native American leader)|White Bird]], of the ''Lamátta'' band of Nez Perce, managed to elude the Army after the battle and escape with an undetermined number of his band to Sitting Bull's camp in Canada. The 418 Nez Perce who surrendered, including women and children, were taken prisoner and sent by train to [[Fort Leavenworth]], Kansas.

Although Chief Joseph is the most well known of the Nez Perce leaders, he was not the sole overall leader. The Nez Perce were led by a coalition of several leaders from the different bands who comprised the "non-treaty" Nez Perce, including the Wallowa [[Ollokot]], [[White Bird (Native American leader)|White Bird]] of the ''Lamátta'' band, [[Toohoolhoolzote]] of the ''Pikunin'' band, and [[Looking Glass (Native American leader)|Looking Glass]] of the ''Alpowai'' band.  Brigadier General Howard was head of the U.S. Army's [[Department of the Columbia]], which was tasked with forcing the Nez Perce onto the reservation and whose jurisdiction was extended by General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] to allow Howard's pursuit. It was at the final surrender of the Nez Perce when Chief Joseph gave his famous "I Will Fight No More Forever" speech, which was translated by the interpreter Arthur Chapman.

An 1877 ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' editorial discussing the conflict stated, "On our part, the war was in its origin and motive nothing short of a gigantic blunder and a crime".<ref>Robert G. Hays: ''A race at bay: New York Times editorials on "the Indian problem," 1860–1900''; p. 243: Southern Illinois University Press (1997) {{ISBN|0-8093-2067-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=1877-10-15|title=A Lesson from the Nez Perces|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1877/10/15/archives/a-lesson-from-the-nez-perces.html|access-date=2021-01-26|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Many sites associated with the war are today preserved as part of [[Nez Perce National Historical Park]].