Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce
1877
With the Interior Department's concurrence, Monteith interpreted the "reasonable time" as April 1, 1877, and sent four treaty Nez Perces, including the head chief, Reuben, who was Joseph's brother-in-law, Reuben's son James, Joseph's father-in-law, and Captain John, to tell Joseph to come onto the reservation by that date or Howard would use troops to force him to move. Thinking that there must be some mistake since Howard and his officers had several times made known their understanding of the Indians' right to the Wallowa country, Joseph made a number of attempts to meet Howard again and see if he really meant to use the army against his people. Mindful of the Little Bighorn disaster to Custer's troops the previous year, when the army had tried to rush the Sioux onto reservations, Howard was willing to give the Nez Perces plenty of time, and he agreed to meet with the off-reservation bands once more at Fort Lapwai on May 3, well after Monteith's deadline.
It was a last and fateful gathering. The non-treaty chiefs met first and selected Toohoolhoolzote, an uncompromising and able orator, to be their spokesman. Then, painted, dressed in their finery, and singing proudly, the bands rode, one by one, to Fort Lapwai, where crowds of treaty Nez Perces and whites watched their arrival with concern and awe. If the non-treaties thought that Monteith had been wrong and that troops would not be used against them, Howard soon disabused them of the belief. Telling them sternly that they would now have to go on the reservation or he would drive them on, he got into an angry altercation with Toohoolhoolzote, treated him insultingly, and finally seized him and propelled him rudely into the post guardhouse. The display of intemperance and force against their spokesman stunned and angered the chiefs and their people. Howard had turned enemy and had "showed them the rifle." As they sat in silence, they realized that it was now give up their lands, or fight.
Concern for the safety of their women, children, and old people, many of whom were with them, finally moved the chiefs to accept the inevitable. They agreed reluctantly to move peaceably. Then they rode over the reservation for several days, selecting sites on which their bands would settle. Howard gave them only 30 days to move even though the Snake, the Salmon, and other rivers would be in full spring floodtide and the crossings of people and their possessions and livestock would be perilous. He then released Toohoolhoolzote. The bands, torn with sadness and anger, rode home to pack up, gather their stock, and leave the lands of their forefathers. . . .
For two days, Joseph's people struggled across the raging torrent of the Snake River, losing many of their possessions and horses and cattle. Then they crossed the Salmon, headed up Rocky Canyon to Tepahlewam (Split Rocks), the ancient counciling site at the camas meadows beside Tolo Lake about ten kilometers (six miles) west of present-day Grangeville, Idaho. There, on June 2, 12 days before they had to be on the reservation, most of the non-treaty bands—some 600 people, two-thirds of them women, children, and old men—rendezvoused.
As the days passed, their anger rose. On June 12, with only two days left, a number of young men conducted a Tal-La-Klee-Tsa parade ceremony, riding around the camp, showing off their battle trophies and proudly recounting their war deeds. One, Wahlitits, was taunted by an elderly warrior for riding in the parade when he had not avenged the murder of his father by a white man in the Salmon River country. That night, the youth brooded over the challenge and at dawn enlisted two other young men, including his cousin, Sarpsis Il-pihlp. Riding back to the Salmon River area, they hunted in vain for the slayer of Wahlitits's father, then killed four white men and wounded another, all known for their mistreatment of Indians.
Their return to Tepahlewam and announcement of what they had done threw the camp into
excitement. Joseph and Ollokot were not there, having recrossed the Salmon to butcher some
cattle that they had left behind. Among all the bands, however, there were hasty councils.
The tree youths were members of White Bird's band, and already a larger group of warriors,
mostly from the same band, was forming to go back to the Salmon River and kill more whites
who had injured their people. As the new party of 17 members . . . rode off, the
non-treaties began to collect their goods and hurry to a safer location. Howard would soon
hear about the killings. The war that the chiefs had tried to avoid had begun.