Forced Relocation and War

WAR IS MADE TO TAKE SOMETHING NOT YOUR OWN.

— Yellow Wolf, Nez Perce War Veteran

  Following his refusal to sign the 1863 Treaty, Tıwi·teqıs placed boundary markers across the route from the Grande Ronde valley. Settler R.M. Downy said that Old Chief Joseph told him through an interpreter that the markers showed “where his line was to the Wallowa country, and he wanted the white men to know.” Tıwi·teqıs passed away in the early 1870s but the wal’wá·ma maintained the poles placed vertically into rock piles until 1877. Some boundary markers are still visible today.
  

  President Grant reserved part of the Wallowa Valley for the Nez Perce in 1873. In error, his executive order granted the Nez Perce all land north of the baseline, where whites had already settled, rather than the land south of the line. The government went so far as to assess the $68,000 in settler investments for buyout. After two years of bureaucratic debate, during which time more settlers arrived, Grant formally rescinded the order.
  

Map of the Reserve from “The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest” by Alvin Josephy

June 16, 1873,
It is hereby ordered that the tract of country above described be withheld from entry and settlements as public lands, and that the same be set apart as a reservation for the roaming Nez Percé Indians, as recommended by the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Signed,
PRESIDENT U. S. GRANT

  In June 1876, after five years of tenuous peace among the wal’wá·ma and the homesteaders settling on their land, a young man named Wilhautyah was murdered by A.B. Findley and Wells McNall at upper Whiskey Creek. The white men had ridden into a Nez Perce camp accusing them of stealing horses which later turned up grazing near the homestead. After several months, when neither settler had been brought to trial, Chief Joseph sought justice. A Nez Perce council found Findley guilty and insisted that the settlers leave the valley. Instead of leaving, the whites appealed to the military.
    
In May of 1877, the “One Armed General” Howard was dispatched to remove the people of wal’áwa, by force, to the Idaho reservation.