Editing Nez Perce War (section)

==Background==
[[File:Nezperce01.png|thumb|right|240px|The Nez Perce reservation in 1855 (green) and the reduced reservation of 1863 (brown).]]
{{Rquote|right|"We took away their country and their means of support, broke up their mode of living, their habits of life, introduced disease and decay among them and it was for this and against this they made war. Could anyone expect less?"|Gen. [[Philip H. Sheridan]]}}
In 1855, at the [[Walla Walla Council (1855)|Walla Walla Council]], the Nez Perce were coerced by the [[Federal government of the United States|federal government]] into giving up their ancestral lands and moving to the [[Umatilla Reservation]] in [[Oregon Territory]] with the [[Walla Walla people|Walla Walla]], [[Cayuse people|Cayuse]], and [[Umatilla (tribe)|Umatilla]] tribes.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last        = Trafzer
 |first       = Clifford E.
 |date        = Fall 2005
 |url         = http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/106.3/trafzer.html
 |title       = Legacy of the Walla Walla Council, 1955
 |journal     = Oregon Historical Quarterly
 |volume      = 106
 |issue       = 3
 |pages       = 398–411
 |doi = 10.1353/ohq.2005.0006
 |s2cid = 166019157
 |issn        = 0030-4727
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070105201203/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/106.3/trafzer.html
 |archive-date = 2007-01-05
|url-access= subscription
 }}</ref>  The tribes involved were so bitterly opposed to the terms of the plan that Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the [[Washington Territory]], and [[Joel Palmer]], superintendent of Indian affairs for [[Oregon Territory]], signed the Nez Perce Treaty in 1855, which granted the Nez Perce the right to remain in a large portion of their own lands in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon territories, in exchange for relinquishing almost 5.5 million acres of their approximately 13 million acre homeland to the U.S. government for a nominal sum, with the [[wikt:caveat|caveat]] that they be able to hunt, fish. and pasture their horses etc. on unoccupied areas of their former land – the same rights to use public lands as [[Anglo-Americans|Anglo-American]] citizens of the territories.<ref>[http://www.ccrh.org/comm/river/treaties/nezperce.htm Center for Columbia River History: Nez Perce Treaty, 1855] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070126051433/http://www.ccrh.org/comm/river/treaties/nezperce.htm |date=2007-01-26 }}</ref>

The newly established Nez Perce [[Indian reservation]] was {{convert|7,500,000|acre|km2}} in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington territories.  Under the terms of the treaty, no white settlers were allowed on the reservation without the permission of the Nez Perce.  However, in 1860 gold was discovered near present-day [[Pierce, Idaho]], and 5,000 gold-seekers rushed onto the reservation, illegally founding the downstream city of [[Lewiston, Idaho|Lewiston]] as a supply depot on Nez Perce land.<ref>Hampton, Bruce. ''Children of Grace: The Nez Perce War of 1877.''  New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994, pp 28–29 {{ISBN?}}</ref>  Ranchers and farmers followed the miners, and the U.S. government failed to keep settlers out of Indian lands. The Nez Perce were incensed at the failure of the U.S. government to uphold the [[Treaty Clause|treaties]], and at settlers who [[Squatting|squatted]] on their land and plowed up their [[Camassia quamash|camas]] prairies, which they depended on for subsistence.<ref>{{cite book|last=Clute|first=Willard Nelson|title=The American botanist, devoted to economic and ecological botany, Volumes 11–15|year=1907|publisher=W.N. Clute & co.|page=98}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mathews|first=Daniel|title=Cascade-Olympic Natural History: a trailside reference|year=1999|publisher = Raven Editions|page=168|isbn=978-0-9620782-1-7}}</ref>

In 1863, a group of Nez Perce were coerced into signing away 90% of their reservation to the U.S., leaving only {{convert|750000|acre|km2}} in Idaho Territory.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greene |first=Jerome A. |title=Nez Perce Sumer 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis |publisher=Montana Historical Society Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-917298-82-9 |location=Helena, Montana |pages=11}}</ref>  Under the terms of the treaty, all Nez Perce were to move onto the new and much smaller reservation east of Lewiston.  A large number of Nez Perce, however, did not accept the validity of the treaty, refused to move to the reservation, and remained on their traditional lands.<ref name="shogg">{{cite web|url=http://www.nezperce.com/npedu10.html|title=Political Elements of Nez Perce history during mid-1800s & War of 1877|last=Hoggatt|first=Stan|year=1997|publisher=Western Treasures|access-date=10 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323002830/http://www.nezperce.com/npedu10.html|archive-date=2012-03-23|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="cfwilk">{{cite book|last=Wilkinson|first=Charles F.|title=Blood struggle: the rise of modern Indian nations|year=2005|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=0-393-05149-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bloodstruggleris00wilk/page/40 40–41]|url=https://archive.org/details/bloodstruggleris00wilk/page/40}}</ref><ref>Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. ''The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest.'' Boston: Mariner, 1997, pp. 428–29. {{ISBN?}}</ref>  The Nez Perce who approved the treaty were mostly Christian; the opponents mostly followed the traditional religion. The "non-treaty" Nez Perce included the band of Chief Joseph, who lived in the [[Wallowa River|Wallowa]] valley in northeastern Oregon. Disputes there with white farmers and ranchers led to the murders of several Nez Perce, and the murderers were never prosecuted.<ref>Hampton, pp. 32–36, 43</ref>
[[File:Oliver Otis Howard.jpg|thumb|right|160px|Gen. [[Oliver Otis Howard]] in a [[American Civil War|Civil War]]-era photograph.]]
Tensions between Nez Perce and white settlers rose in 1876 and 1877.  General [[Oliver Otis Howard]] called a council in May 1877 and ordered the non-treaty bands to move to the reservation, setting an impossible deadline of 30 days.<ref>West, Elliott, pp. 14–15</ref><ref name=Malone135>Malone, p. 135</ref>  Howard humiliated the Nez Perce by jailing their old leader, [[Toohoolhoolzote]], who spoke against moving to the reservation.<ref>Josephy, Jr., Alvin M. ''The Nez Perce Indians the Opening of the Northwest,'' New Haven: Yale U Press, 1965, p. 504.  Toohoolhoolzote shared a jail cell with an amiable but drunken soldier, Trumpeter John Jones.  They two got along famously, but Jones, a few weeks later, became the first soldier killed in the Nez Perce War. McDermott, p. 60</ref>  The other Nez Perce leaders, including  Chief Joseph, considered military resistance to be futile; they agreed to the move and reported as ordered to [[Fort Lapwai]], Idaho Territory.<ref name=PBS>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.htm |title=Chief Joseph| work= New Perspectives on the West|publisher = The West Film Project/WETA/PBS/  | year = 2001  | access-date = 2010-12-12}}</ref>  By June 14, 1877, about 600 Nez Perce from Joseph's and White Bird's bands had gathered on the [[Camas prairie#Idaho|Camas Prairie]], six miles (10&nbsp;km) west of present-day [[Grangeville, Idaho|Grangeville]].<ref name=West5>West, Elliott, pp. 5–6</ref>

On June 13, shortly before the deadline for removing onto the reservation, White Bird's band held a tel-lik-leen ceremony at the Tolo Lake camp in which the warriors paraded on horseback in a circular movement around the village while individually boasting of their battle prowess and war deeds. According to Nez Perce accounts, an aged warrior named Hahkauts Ilpilp (Red Grizzly Bear) challenged the presence in the ceremony of several young participants whose relatives' deaths at the hands of whites had gone unavenged. One named Wahlitits (Shore Crossing) was the son of Eagle Robe, who had been shot to death by Lawrence Ott three years earlier. Thus humiliated and apparently fortified with liquor, Shore Crossing and two of his cousins, Sarpsisilpilp (Red Moccasin Top) and Wetyemtmas Wahyakt (Swan Necklace), set out for the Salmon River settlements on a mission of revenge. On the following evening, June 14, 1877,  Swan Necklace returned to the lake to announce that the trio had killed four white men and wounded another man.  Inspired by the war furor, approximately sixteen more young men rode off to join Shore Crossing in raiding the settlements.<ref>{{cite web|last=Greene|first=Jerome A|title=online ebook title_ 'Nez Perce, Summer 1877; US Army and the Nimiipoo Crisis'|url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/biho/greene/chap2.htm|work=US Government National Parks and Historic Sites|publisher=Montana Historical Press|access-date=28 July 2013}}</ref>

Joseph and his brother Ollokot were away from the camp during the raids on June 14 and 15.  When they arrived at the camp the next day, most of the Nez Perce had departed for a campsite on White Bird Creek to await the response of General Howard. Joseph considered an appeal for peace to the Whites, but realized it would be useless after the raids. Meanwhile, Howard mobilized his military force and sent out 130 men, including 13 friendly Nez Perce scouts, under the command of Captain David Perry to punish the Nez Perce and force them onto the reservation.  Howard anticipated that his soldiers "will make short work of it."<ref>McDermott, John D. ''Forlorn Hope.'' Boise: Idaho State Historical Society, 1978, pp. 12, 54</ref>  
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