Legends of the Old West - ENCORE: NEZ PERCÉ WAR Ep. 4 | “Thunder In The Mountains”

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

The Nez Percé are on the run. They cross the Bitterroot Mountains and arrive in Montana. They believe they have left their troubles behind and can start fresh in a new territory. But they soon learn the truth. They are shunned, and sometimes betrayed, by their friends. A new American army unit joins the hunt from an unexpected direction and it clashes with the Nez Percé in a high mountain valley.  Thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring Legends of the Old West! Try it now and receive 4 extra months on a 2-year plan: NordVPN.com/oldwest Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial.   On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.    For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Z's apply. In the space of just one month, five bands of the Nez Perce experienced total upheaval. Between June 15th and July 15th, 1877, everything changed. General Oliver Howard, the U.S. Army commander in the Pacific Northwest, had given them a deadline to move to the reservation. They had resisted the move for 13 years, but in May of 1877, Howard said he would take them there by force if necessary. If the five bands were even considering the move, they certainly weren't going to make it by Howard's deadline. And then, over the course of two days in mid-June, the decision became a moot point. A group of warriors killed 18 white settlers, which forced the army to respond, which forced the Nez Perce into fighting a series of battles

and skirmishes. Exactly one month after the two days of bloody attacks that sparked the Nez Perce War, the five non-treaty bands camped in a prairie and made a new decision. They were going to leave their homelands in the mountains and valleys of central Idaho, eastern Washington, and eastern Oregon. They were going to go on the run. They were going to move their entire civilization over the Bitterroot Mountains and down into what they called the Buffalo Country of Montana. Nothing like it had ever been attempted. Sitting Bulls Village was the only group that had done anything that was even similar. After the Battle of the Little Bighorn a year earlier, they had fled north to Canada, but

crossing the hills and small mountains in a central corridor of Montana was much different than crossing towering peaks in the center of the Rocky Mountain Range. But as the Nez Perce sat around council fires on the night of July 15, 1877 and made the decision to leave their homes there was not a consensus. A group of 40 did not want to make the trip and they surrendered to General Howard. They received a preview of what was to come for the others though of course the others didn't know it. When the group surrendered General Howard took all their possessions and marched them on

foot across 60 miles of territory in the middle of summer. They arrived at the reservation and discovered that it was not their final destination, at least not yet. From the reservation, they were sent to Fort Vancouver in Vancouver, Washington, which is right across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. They spent nine months in jail at Fort Vancouver before military officials were convinced that they had not been part of the month of fighting. They had been inadvertently caught up in the movements and were actually trying to avoid the violence by surrendering. They were released, but then they had to find their own way back home to the reservation. The rest of the five bands of Nez Perce would not know the fates of those 40 for months or even years. They were determined to go east, and they wasted no time beginning their journey. On the same day the 40 surrendered, the rest of the five bands started their march toward the Bitterroot Mountains.

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of the Nez Perce people and their epic fight to remain free. This is The Nez Perce War, Episode 4 – Thunder in the Mountains. On the morning of July 16, 1877, the five non-treaty bands of the Nez Perce began their march toward the Bitterroot Mountains. They were camped in Wee Ipe Prairie, a wide expanse at the base of the mountains. That was where the Nez Perce had met the Lewis and Clark Expedition almost exactly 72 years

earlier. The explorers had crossed the mountains in September of 1805. They had been caught in a snowstorm, and when they moved down Lolo Trail and emerged into the prairie, they were half-dead and starving. The Nez Perce revived them, and then the expedition continued westward toward the Pacific Ocean. Now, 72 years later, the Nez Perce crossed the prairie heading toward the mountains and marched up low-low trail in the opposite direction. The trail started at 3,000 feet of elevation and topped out at 6,000, so it

was not for the faint of heart. Commanding General of the U.S. Army, William Tecumseh Sherman said it was, "...one of the worst trails for man and beast on this continent." The Nez Perce had used Lolo Trail for generations to cross into the high plains to hunt buffalo with their friends, the Flathead and the Crow. The first goal of this journey was to link up with those two tribes and find safety and sanctuary. The Nez Perce started the trip with roughly 750 people and about 2,000 horses. Herding that many people and horses over the trail,

and at the speed they did it, was one for the record books. The trail was brutal. It rose through barren areas, and then made a steep drop on the other side. Then it rose again through thick timber, and twisted around the rims of canyons, where the path was barely wide enough for a single person. It was midsummer in the mountains, so the path was barely wide enough for a single person.

It was midsummer in the mountains, so the trail was sometimes dry and rocky, and other times wet and muddy after a blast from a rainstorm. And the Nez Perce moved through the terrain with the army sniping on their heels. Five days earlier, the Nez Perce had fought the second of two battles in the first month of the war. They had won a decisive victory in the first battle at Whitebird Canyon, and looked like they would win a second victory at the Battle of Clearwater River, but then the battle took a turn.

On the second day of fighting, a group of General Howard's infantry made a surprise charge at the thin Nez Perce lines. That charge broke the Nez Perce resistance, and they fled into the prairie where they made the fateful decision to leave their homeland. General Howard rested his troops for a full day before resuming his pursuit. That gave the Nez Perce time to hold their council and then start their trek into the mountains. But now, General Howard's advance scouts were within firing distance of the Nez Perce rear guard. An army major and his detachment followed the Nez Perce up the trail to scout their movements,

but the Nez Perce were waiting. The rear guard had set up an ambush, and the troopers walked right into it. The rear guard opened fire. They killed one soldier, wounded two more, and sent the rest running back to General Howard's camp in the prairie. The scouting mission had been more costly than expected, but at least the general learned valuable intelligence. The Nez Perce had duped him a month earlier when they rode into a smaller range of mountains back in the heart of their homeland. They had faked a march to the west, but instead moved east. Howard fell for the

fake and it cost his men time and energy. But now, there was only one trail over the mountains from this spot. Although Howard would learn in a few days that the Nez Perce still had some tricks up their sleeves. There might be one trail over the mountains, but there was more than one trail out of the mountains on the other side. Hey Legends family, here's a fun fact. I love Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and British TV shows. I have no doubt you've heard of a service called NordVPN, and that's what helps me watch my favorite shows from the UK region. NordVPN is an internet protection

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NordVPN.com slash Old West. Thanks. General Howard didn't want to follow the Nez Perce over the mountains. He knew the trail came out the other side near the town of Missoula, Montana. His first plan was to march north to a much better road through the mountains, then turn south and march along the base of the mountains until he reached Missoula. It would be twice as far, but it would also be easier, which should make it faster. With luck, he would arrive before the Nez Perce and cut them off. But the civilians in his jurisdiction were worried about another fake out. They thought that as soon as Howard rushed off to the north, the Nez Perce would come back down and attack them all over again. So Howard split the difference.

He left a detachment in Idaho to stop any trouble. He sent a detachment north to follow his original plan. And then he led the majority of his troops up Lolo Trail in direct pursuit of the Nez Purse. But he did one more thing before he left. He used the telegraph to relay the news of the situation to his superiors and commanders in Montana. In a matter of minutes, officers hundreds of miles away learned about the flight of the Nez Perce and mobilized to stop them. The Nez Perce were fast, but they couldn't hope to

match that kind of speed. One week after the Nez Perce started up Lolo Trail, they passed the summit of the Bitter Root Mountains and stopped in a high mountain prairie. It was a traditional resting spot on the difficult journey, but they camped only briefly. Within two days of camping in the meadow, or possibly as many as four, they were down the backside of the mountains and approaching the end of the trail. And that was when their next set of problems began. Just two days after the Nez Perce started their trip, the people of Missoula learned about the expedition. There was a small army contingent stationed at Missoula. It was just 35 men led by Captain Charles Ron.

It was just 35 men led by Captain Charles Rahn. When Rahn heard that a Native American army was crossing the mountains and would land on his doorstep in a matter of days, he sent a detachment up the trail from Missoula to see if it was true. The detachment met a group of four people who confirmed the news. The Nez Perce were coming. At that point, all of western Montana exploded into panic. People in every town and settlement hurried to rebuild crumbling fortifications. Citizen militias mobilized.

Newspapers screamed for help in their headlines. One literally read, Help, help, come running. Captain Ron rushed his men back up the trail. They cut down trees and started building a crude fort to block the path. The timeline becomes fuzzy at this point, but sometime between July 25th and July 28th, the leaders of the Nez Perce reached the blockade. Details of the meeting or meetings are really messy and really suspicious, but it seems like there was at least one exchange between the Nez Perce and Captain Ron.

According to Ron, there were two meetings, and he demanded full surrender both times. The Nez Perce said they didn't want to fight, but they also weren't going to surrender. They just wanted to move down through the Bitterroot valley on the Montana side of the mountains and keep moving. They would simply pass through the area and had no interest in bloodshed. In the end, it didn't really matter how many meetings there were or what was said. The Nez Perce knew the mountains and the trails better than Ron and they simply rode around him. Toward the bottom of the mountains, they switched to a different trail, avoided Ron's makeshift blockade and walked out of the mountains behind him. They moved down into the Bitterroot Valley and slowly worked their way east, and they

proved they had no intention of fighting. As they marched during the next few days, they bought supplies from white settlers and a couple towns that had fortified themselves against the terror of the coming army. Interactions were tense in the beginning, but when the Nez Perce showed pieces of gold, the white shopkeepers warmed up to them. But even though the civilians in the Bitterroot Valley were learning that the Nez Perce didn't want trouble, that didn't mean there wouldn't be any. Colonel John Gibbon's army was racing toward Missoula from the east, and the third major battle of the Nez Perce war was about ten days away. On the army's side of the equation, it was good that General Howard used the telegraph

to his advantage, because he certainly didn't try to use foot speed. Howard stayed on his side of the Bitterroot Mountains for two full weeks before he started following the Nez Perce. He finally began his trek on July 30th, while the Nez Perce were slowly moving through the valley on the other side of the mountains. Howard had 700 men who were a motley crew of cavalry, infantry, artillery, civilian volunteers, civilian packers to wrangle the supplies on 350 mules, and Native American scouts to lead the way. The column reached the summit and the mountain meadow about a week after it started, somewhere around August 5th or 6th. At that time, the Nez Perce were stopping at a high

mountain valley well to the south of the place where they had exited the Bitterroot Mountains. They had moved leisurely southward because there were no signs of Howard's men chasing them in hot pursuit, and they had no idea that a different army was rushing in from the east. The army from the east was led by Colonel John Gibbon. Gibbon was one of the three army commanders on the famous campaign of 1876. He led the Montana Column in the attempt to force the followers of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and many others to move to reservations.

His men were the first to spot Sitting Bull's village in southern Montana in mid-May of 1876, but as the campaign played out, they didn't fight a single meaningful engagement. They arrived at the Battle of the Little Bighorn two days after it happened. Their only involvement was to bury Custer and the rest of the dead from the 7th Cavalry. Gibbon's column stayed on the campaign for the rest of the summer, but returned to Fort Ellis near Bozeman, Montana, without ever getting within striking distance of the village. Now it was one year later, in late July of 1877. General Howard had wired his fellow departmental commander, General Phil Sheridan. Sheridan commanded the Department of the Missouri, all the land between the Rocky Mountains and

the Midwest. The Nez Perce were moving out of Howard's department and into Sheridan's, and Howard wanted Sheridan to coordinate a response. Sheridan wired Colonel Gibbon and told him to get moving. At the end of July, on probably the same day that the Nez Perce dodged the small army unit at the end of the trail and escaped the mountains, Gibbon's men began a hard march. His column was up on the Missouri River at an outpost called Fort Shaw. His seven companies of the 7th Infantry headed

south toward Helena, Montana and then turned west. They arrived at Missoula, Montana five days later. At that time, Gibbon's column was about five days behind the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce were slowly moving down the Bitterroot Valley, the first of many they would have to pass through to get to the Crow Nation. Gibbon and his men turned south and continued to make up time, both because the Nez Perce thought they were out of danger and because the infantry were able to spend at least some of the time riding in wagons rather than walking.

On August 6th, 1877, the Nez Perce stopped in a prairie called Big Hole. In the slang of the time, a hole was the nickname for a valley that was high in the mountains. Big Hole was a valley that sat between two mountain ranges. It was good ground and it was the best place to stop and rest before trudging up into the mountains again. Nez Perce leader Looking Glass had been in charge of the march up to that point. He had led the extraordinary journey of the last three weeks and now he wanted to set up a real camp.

Most of the Nez Perce had been on the move for five straight weeks with very little rest. They had just spent the last three weeks crossing the mountains and moving down into this valley. Looking Glass said it was time to build lodges, cook real food, rest and recuperate, and let the exhausted horses graze for a few days. No one could argue against any of those things. All of them needed to happen. But other leaders urged Looking Glass to send riders back up the trail to make sure they weren't being followed.

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Lieutenant James Bradley was still Colonel Gibbons Chief of Scouts. He had been Gibbons Chief of Scouts the previous year during the 1876 campaign, and it was Bradley and his scouts who were the first to see Sitting Bulls Village in May of 1876. Now, just like then, Lieutenant Bradley and his scouts were the first to spot the Nez Perce. On August 8th, the scouts found the Nez Perce at Big Hole. The Nez Perce had camped for two days and had squandered their advantage. But it was an advantage they didn't know they had or needed. They thought they'd left General Howard far behind, and the chase was now done.

They didn't expect an attack from a different group of soldiers. After all, they hadn't fought anyone here in Montana. The last few days had been pretty peaceful. And that was where the Nez Perce's isolated homeland hurt them again. They had never seen a railroad. Maybe they had heard of the great iron horse, but they had never seen one. They might have heard of a telegraph, but they didn't understand its power. And they definitely didn't understand that a fight with one group of soldiers was a fight with them all. The Nez Perce believed that by leaving their homeland and disengaging from the fight with General Howard, they were now free and clear.

One day after Lieutenant Bradley spied their camp, they learned the truth. At sunset on August 8, 1877, Colonel Gibbon's main column arrived at Bradley's forward position. Bradley explained the layout of the Nez Perce camp, and Gibbon and his officers formed a plan. At 1 a.m. on August 9, the troops rose from a few hours of sleep and moved into position for an attack at first light. The Nez Perce were camped in a bend of the Big Hole River. It was a similar position to native camps in other major battles, but with one major difference.

The village was on the opposite side of the river from its herd of horses. At the Little Bighorn, the Sioux and Cheyenne made sure the horses were on the same side of the river as the village. Gibbon's men crept into positions in the weeds along the riverbank. From an army perspective, it was perfect. They had maintained the element of surprise, which was rare in fights with Native American armies, and they were between the warriors and their horses, which was a vital advantage. But they were about to be another example of the old army maxim that no plan survives

first contact with the enemy. At dawn, they were supposed to cross the river, fire a volley, then charge the village. The soldiers were outnumbered though not badly, but the element of surprise would be crucial to success. Gibbon had about 185 men, and there were probably 200 to 300 warriors in the camp. At 4 a.m., Gibbon gave the order to move. The soldiers slogged through the marshes at the edge of the river, then waded through the water, then through the marshes on the other side.

They were now on the same side of the river as the village, but before they could begin the attack, they noticed a lone Nez Perce man riding out from the village to check on the horse herd. He was old and nearly blind and probably hadn't noticed the soldiers, but they didn't know that. A few of them opened fire and killed the Nez Perce man. That prematurely started the Battle of Big Hole, but the soldiers followed it up with a furious assault. The son of Whitebird, one of the central leaders of the Nez Perce, remembered that the bullets

slammed into the lodges with such force that they sounded like hail. The initial assault was horrifying for the Nez Perce. The soldiers stormed the village and laid waste to several parts of it. They killed warriors, women, children, and the horses that were picketed in the camp. One soldier said the ground was thick with the dead and dying, and the air was thick with smoke from burning lodges and also shrieks, curses, and moans. A young warrior named Shore Crossing died in the early stages. He holds a place of distinction in the story.

He was the young man who recruited two friends to help him avenge his father's death by attacking white settlers six weeks earlier. Those attacks led to more attacks and helped start the war. On the army's side, there was also a significant loss in the early stages of the battle. Lieutenant James Bradley was the first soldier killed. He had been assigned to anchor the left flank of the battle line, and he was in charge of the civilian volunteers. The volunteers were supposed to overrun the northern end of the village,

but they failed. And that gave the Nez Perce the opening to turn the battle back against the soldiers. Lieutenant Bradley's death had an immediate impact on the soldiers on the left flank. The civilians were already failing, and when Bradley died, the soldiers faltered as well. And then the right flank suffered problems, though those were self-inflicted. The soldiers on the right flank stopped the charge to burn the lodges. Some burned nicely, but others were made of wet wood. They only smoldered without catching fire, which frustrated the soldiers.

By stopping the charge to focus on the lodges rather than the warriors, the army gave the Nez Perce the chance to regroup. Joseph and another man escaped the village and raced for the horse herd. They guided the horses away from the soldiers before the soldiers could scatter them and leave the Nez Perce stranded. At the same time, warriors dashed up onto high ground above the village and poured gunfire down onto the soldiers. Other warriors rushed into the weeds and marshes along the edge of the river and found places

to hide. When they were hidden, they started picking off the soldiers one by one. The battle flipped quickly, and the soldiers were on the verge of running in panic. Colonel Gibbon had been shot in the leg and he saw the change in the battle around him. He managed to organize an orderly retreat before his force devolved into total chaos. He moved his men up onto a flat piece of high ground, but then he got a taste of the historic battle he missed. His soldiers were trapped on the bluff and were about to experience a siege just like part of the 7th Cavalry had experienced on Reno Hill 14 months earlier.

Soldiers scratched out shallow pits for protection while Nez Perce sharpshooters fired down on them from even higher ground. The soldiers thought they were saved when two shots from a howitzer boomed across the battlefield, but the Nez Perce quickly overran the small cannon and killed the men who operated it. In Gibbon's rush to attack, he had left behind the cannon and the mules that carried 2,000 rounds of extra ammo for his soldiers. The Nez Perce quickly captured the mules and the ammo too.

Now Gibbon's force was trapped on the hill with no hope of reinforcements or resupply. They didn't have a doctor, so they patched up the wounded as best they could. This was early August, and the heat rose throughout the afternoon and added the same misery that it had added for the men on Reno Hill. Then the Nez Perce set fire to the trees and brush. The flames marched steadily toward the soldiers, and it would force them to burn alive or run into withering gunfire. But the soldiers were spared both fates. The wind shifted and blew the flames in a different direction. Warriors kept up sporadic gunfire throughout the afternoon, but when the flames failed to produce a conclusion to the battle, most

of the warriors drifted back to camp. They helped the survivors pack their belongings and bury their dead. At that point, the Battle of Big Hole was essentially done. It was not a total disaster for either side, but the losses were felt deeply nonetheless. For Gibbon's force, the loss of Lieutenant Bradley was a gut punch. For the Nez Perce, they lost four warriors who had become prominent over the last few weeks. Shore Crossing and Red Moccasin Tops were two of the three who participated in the first

attack to avenge Shore Crossing's father. Rainbow and Five Wounds had been key leaders in other battles. Now all four were gone, and that obviously didn't include the more tragic losses of the women and children who died in the battle. But the chiefs of all five bands were still alive, and they rallied their people and continued down the valley toward the next set of mountains. The Nez Perce lost somewhere between 40 and 100 people during the battle, but as always, accurate numbers will never be known.

Colonel Gibbon lost 23 soldiers and 6 civilians. Another 38 were wounded, and two of those later died. The two sides had mauled each other for the better part of a day, but now they separated to lick their wounds and decide what to do next. For Gibbon, it was to unite with General Howard. For the Nez Perce, it was to understand that this was a wake-up call. It was a turning point. The army would never stop hunting them. They now viewed all white people as enemies. And soon they would realize that they were out of friends as well. They were alone, and they

would have only one choice left. Next time on Legends of the Old West, the Nez Perce renew their fight with General Howard and then flee to Yellowstone National Park before beginning an all-out sprint for freedom. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials, and they also receive exclusive bonus episodes.

Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. Original music by Rob Valier. I'm your writer, host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please give us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Chris Wimmer. available on YouTube. Just search for Legends of the Old West podcast. Thanks for listening.