The Flight of the Nez Perce
GLO Record of the Week for April 11, 2021
This week's story map features the Nez Perce War of 1877. This was an armed conflict between the US Army and the several bands of the Nez Perce or Nimiipuu Tribe of Native Americans. The conflict arose when the United States altered a previously agreed upon treaty by reducing the area of the established Nez Perce Reservation by approximately 90%. The new treaty was known to the Nez Perce as the "Thief Treaty." The conflict is also known as the Nez Perce Flight of 1877, as the objective of the Nez Perce combatants was to ultimately find a new place outside the forced reservation boundaries to settle.
This week's record features a plat approved April 12, 1898, which displays the exterior boundary surveys for several townships within the new boundaries and portions of the boundary lines for the reservation itself.
The First Treaty
The Nez Perce ancestral homeland spans three states; modern-day Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The creation of Oregon Territory in 1848, and Washington in 1853, triggered the treaty process between the U.S. and the Nez Perce.
After tense negotiations, the Nez Perce agreed to cede 7.5 million acres of tribal land while still retaining the right to hunt and fish in their normal spots. In exchange, the U.S. would provide schools, various trade shops, a hospital, and cash payments to the tribe and its leaders. The Treaty of 1855 was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1859.
The Thief Treaty
In 1860, gold was discovered within the boundaries of the reservation. Rather than stop the newcomers from trespassing on reservation land, the U.S. government instead initiated another treaty council in 1863 that would shrink reservation by 90%, claiming over five million acres.
The groups that lived outside the new proposed boundary refused to accept the treaty and walked out of the proceedings. The 51 headmen who lived within the new proposed boundary lines did sign the treaty, and Congress ratified it in 1867.
Those who did not sign the treaty came to be known as the non-treaty Nez Perce.
Conflict
After some time, war broke out between the non-treaty Nez Perce and the U.S. Army. The non-treaty Nez Perce were forced into a 126-day journey that spanned over 1,170 miles through four different states as they sought peaceful sanctuary. They first attempted to shelter with the Crow and were refused. They then tried to continue on to Canada.
A majority of the surviving non-treaty Nez Perce were finally forced to surrender on October 5, 1877, after the Battle of the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana, 40 miles from the Canadian border.
Below is a story map tour from National Park Service that details the conflict. The route of the Nez Perce flight is preserved by the Nez Perce National Historic Trail. Access the link to learn more.
