Big Hole National Battlefield, the location of a surprise attack by the U.S. Army on members of the Nez Perce Tribe in western Montana. The skeleton tipis symbolize where the Nez Perce were asleep at the time of the attack. (Photo by Alan Majchrowicz Photography)
The history of the Big Hole battle courtesy of Nez Perce tribal elder, Wilfred (Scotty) Scott and the Nez Perce Historical webpage.
In the early morning of August 9, 1877, a Nez Perce man and his Nez Perce wife woke to the sound of gun shots. The wife told her husband to get his gun and fight. He told her to grab their 2-year-old daughter and run for the willows. The child was not in the tipi.
The mother began frantically searching for her. When she stepped outside of their tipi, she found the little girl walking toward the soldiers and their flashing rifles. The mother sprinted toward her, but before she could get to her, the little girl was shot.
This is the story of the beginning attack on Nimiipuu as they laid sleeping in their tipis. This was the Battle of Big Hole, 143 years ago.
The mother grabbed her child and was also shot in the back. The mother survived and buried her child two days later, somewhere on the trail at an unmarked grave.
The unsuspecting Nez Perce people were all sleeping. U.S. soldiers began the bloody clash just west of present day Wisdom, Montana. The battle persisted for over a day and a half, with both sides taking heavy losses. An estimated 60 to 90 Nez Perce lost their lives at the Battle of the Big Hole. Many of the Nez Perce victims included women, children, and elders. This national battlefield is a step into history and serves to honor those who fought and died.
Historically, the Nimiipuu people moved throughout about 7.5 million acres of land in Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Wyoming; where they would fish, hunt and trade. Then, in 1855, the Nez Perce agreed to share their tribal land with the U.S. government as long as it was protected. An 1860 gold discovery on the reservation led to a second treaty in 1863, which took away protection of 5 million Big Hole Continued from Front Page acres. The Nimiipuu, outside of the small reservation left, were non-treaty Nez Perce and refused to endorse this “steal treaty.” Their defiance led to the Nez Perce Flight of 1877, a 126-day, 1,170-mile, eight battle run from the U.S. Army.
The Battle of Big Hole was a turning point in this flight. The non-treaty Nimiipuu consisted of nearly 800 people and 2,000 horses. They passed peacefully through the Bitterroot Valley near Missoula and believed the U.S. Army was not pursuing them and that the fighting was over. They arrived at the soon-to-be battlefield on August 7, 1877, to rest before heading to buffalo country.
Two days later, the soldiers made a surprise attack at dawn. Colonel John Gibbon was under orders to forcibly relocate the remaining Nez Perce bands, who were being led by Chief Joseph, to the Lapwai Reservation. When Gibbon caught up to the Nez Perce, he marched his soldiers, civilian volunteers, and a howitzer down the Bitterroot Valley and across from the Nez Perce encampment. U.S. soldiers crept through the willows surrounding the North Fork of the Big Hole River and took aim. U.S. soldiers were ordered to shoot their rifles low into the tipis to kill sleeping and unsuspecting Nez Perce, and to set the tipis on fire.
With serious losses and disheartened spirits, the Nez Perce fled the battle and headed east toward present day Yellowstone National Park. They sought aid from the Crow people; unfortunately with the U.S. soldiers not far behind, they were denied refuge. This time they fled north toward Canada but were stopped 40 miles short in another bloody encounter, the Battle of Bear Paw.
Some Nez Perce made it to Canada, but the rest were sent to Oklahoma only to be relocated again in Washington, never to see their native lands again. There are Nez Perce remains from there to Oklahoma. When Nez Perce would die on the trains the U.S. would throw the bodies overboard.
The Big Hole Battlefield is now managed as a Nez Perce Historical Park by the National Park Service. Today, the entire battlefield landscape is preserved. A visitor center rests high on a hillside overlooking the battlefield where visitors can learn more about the historic battle and the Nez Perce people through informative displays, talks on the deck and the summer speaker series.
Visitors can also access the battlefield directly through a ranger led-tour or by self-guided walks on three short trails. A 0.8 mile, oneway, trail goes along the river to the Nez Perce encampment, marked by the frames of dozens of tipis. The other trails leads up Battle Mountain to the siege area, where an overlook of the battlefield and a replica Howitzer can be seen.
The Big Hole National Battlefield is just one of the stops along the Nez Perce Historic Trail to remind our people of the sacrifices our ancestors have made over one hundred years ago.