Contents
-The Battle of the Berar’s Paw
-Howard and Joseph: The Tortoise and the Hare
-Bear Paw Battle Memorial
–Louis Shambo
The Battle of the Bear’s Paw 1877
In 1877, the Nez Perce under the leadership of Chief Joseph fought a running battle with pursuing U.S. troops. On their way to exile in Canada, they stopped to rest at Snake Creek, just east of the Bear Paw Mountains. There they were intercepted by a new column of troops under Colonel Nelson Miles. Here are some accounts of the battle that followed.
The Battle of the Bear’s Paw-1877
The account of Louis Shambo
Louis Shambo was a Montana pioneer and Scout who guided such legendary figures as General George Crook and Colonel Nelson Miles during the Indian Wars of the Northern plains.
In 1877, as a guide for Miles, he located Chief Joseph’s band of Nez Perce South of where Chinook, Montana is now located. The Nez Perce had fought a running battle with pursuing US Army forces from Oregon to Montana. Winning all of their battles, by September they were within 50 miles of linking up with Sitting Bull’s Sioux warriors in Canada.
Thinking General Howard’s pursuing force was far behind, they stopped at Snake Creek to hunt and rest. It was a fatal mistake. Unforeseen by them a new opponent, Col Miles, was fast approaching from the Southeast. If only they had not hesitated.
In 1916 Louis Shambo, the frontier scout, was living in Havre, Montana. He granted a rare interview where he shared his experience in the battle that followed. Here is Shambo’s account of the fight:
“I had been one of Crook’s scouts and had made a trip to the Redwater, Dry Fork, etc., with ‘Yellowstone Kelly.’ I was introduced to Miles by Kelly. Miles wanted me to work for him and said he would give me the very best wages. I asked him what they were and he said ‘Seventy-five dollars a month.’ As I was at that time packing and getting $125, I did not feel that the wages offered were any inducement so I told him that the offer was too low but that I would consider the same price from him that I was getting. His reply was not one that made me feel very friendly toward him as he said in a tone, which I did not like, that he could get good men for forty dollars, placing too much emphasis on good. I turned on my heel and told him to get his forty dollar men, thinking then that I would see him in h(ell) before I would work for him at any price. When we got into the Little Missouri the scouts they had did not know the country. They came to me for information and I told Captain Clark of the Second Cavalry to look to Miles’ forty dollar men as I did not wish to interfere with their plans.
“When we got to the mouth of Powder river a fellow came from Keogh to tell us to come to that post as fast as we could. We went to Keogh to get ready to go after the Nez Perces. We crossed the Yellowstone in two or three days. The night after we crossed the head man came to me and said: ‘You will not go on this trip.’ I asked him why, and he replied that he wanted me to break in a bunch of mules to pack. My reply was that I might not want to stay; that I might go back to Wyoming.
“I went to the quartermaster and told him I was going to Miles City and when he wanted me, he could send for me. In the course of four or five days an orderly hunted me up and said the commanding officer wanted to see me right away. I went over and he told me that the Nez Perces had burned a bull train at the mouth of Cow Creek and asked me if I knew where it was. I told him yes. To my answer he said: ‘Here is a dispatch and I want you to take it to General Miles.’ I told him that I was no scout, that I did not go much on General Miles anyway from what he had said to me, and as they could get forty dollar men they had better get them. He turned to me and said: ‘You had better go, Louie, as Miles will be sure to make it all right with you; and anyway there is no one else here that we can depend on.’ A little of that kind of talk and I fell for it and told him I would go. ‘When will you be ready?’ My reply was that all I wanted was a good horse and I would go.
“I started at once and overtook Miles the third day out at the east end of the Bear’s Paw. I had a little trouble to get inside the guards but did so and delivered my dispatch to the General and went to bed. The next morning, so early that I could see no sense in it, they called me to go to Miles’ tent.
Bear’s Paw Battle.
Day 1 – September 30, 1877
“He explained to me that the guides did not know the country anymore and wanted to know which way the Indians would go, as they were supposed to join the Gros Ventres. I told him that we were in the land of the Gros Ventres right now. He then replied to me that he wanted me to find the Nez Perces. ‘I will give you ten Cheyenne scouts, see if you can find any trace of these people, and I will make it all right with you, money will be no object.’
“I started with the Indians and only had gone about four miles when I found their trail. I sent an Indian back telling him the place where the Indians were going and for him to come on. We had only proceeded seven or eight miles when we saw a bunch of them running buffalo, probably ten or twelve of them. They soon discovered us, as they had glasses. I soon noticed that they were the Nez Perces as they had striped blankets—the other tribes had solid colors. I sent another Indian back to tell the General that we had found the Nez Perces and that they had better hurry up. The Nez Perces took what meat they wanted, as we did not crowd, not getting nearer than one-half mile.
“When they started for camp, we followed but could see no lodges but could see their horses, which were on the northeast side of the creek. We had no business any nearer those fellows, so hung around ‘till Miles came.
“Finally, he came up and asked me what I had found. I told him what I had seen and that they were camped on Snake creek. He wanted to know how far and I told him about four or five miles. He told me he wanted me to take him to their camp and I told him I could not see the camp but that I knew where they all went in and came out. We got within a mile of them but could not see them. Again, he told me to take him right where I thought they were and had the bugle blow for ‘double quick.’
“We did not see a thing of them till we got within seventy or eighty yards. (This was between eleven and twelve o’clock in the morning.) The Indians were waiting for us and opened fire and Miles stopped his command right there instead of making a charge—and it was right there he made his big loss. (We buried twenty-two men and they were dying all the way back.) I was in the lead and thought that Miles was coming. The Indians shot my horse three times and he fell dead and I was behind him for an hour or more or until the bullets began to come through and made my fortifications no pleasant place to stay. There was a boulder about four or five feet from me and I wiggled to and got behind it. It was not a large rock, only an inch or two above my head when I was lying close to the ground. Pretty soon ‘Yellowstone Kelley’ and Haddow, (John Haddo, Co B., 5th Infantry) a soldier, came to me and wanted to know if I saw anything. I told them I did and that I was getting some shots that counted. Haddow crowded up close to me and placed his arm around me and I told him to lie low or they would get him. I had no more than told him when a bullet hit him just above the collar bone and ranged down. I looked back and saw that he was shot to die, so I asked Kelley to take him by the legs and pull him off and we would see if we could get him to a place of safety. We started but he died on our hands. (In another accounting of the battle Shambo said he “got” nine Indians from this position using his and Haddow’s ammunition.)
“Those Indians were the best shots I ever saw. I would put a small stone on the top of my rock and they would get it every time. They were hitting the rock behind where I was lying which made me duck so hard that it made my nose bleed.
Day 2 – October 1, 1877
“The next morning after the first day’s fight a bunch of buffalo were coming into sight and the soldiers thought it was Sitting Bull’s outfit. They could see black horses, pinto horses and every other kind and they called me and said that Sitting Bull was coming.
“I told them it was buffalo. You see it had snowed that night and the snow had blown into the hair of the buffalo and made them look white and spotted. I told them it was buffalo and look a horse that belonged to Miles and rode over and killed one and brought some of the meat back. Miles gave me fits for it. I believe that if the Indians had charged right then the soldiers would have run like hell. I have been in harder fights than that and will always believe that if we had not hesitated, we would have ended that fight in fifteen minutes as there were twice as many white men as there were Indian warriors.
“Surely that gives something that has never before been written for the people to think about when they study the fight at Snake creek. The buffalo hunters that they had out had kept the Indians from being surprised, and they had returned to camp in time to be prepared to meet Miles with surprise and with such deadly effect that he waited and gave the Indians time to fortify.”
This is where Shambo’s account ends, but the battle drug on for a four more days. From other accounts this is how the fight proceeded:
The Nez Perce were well supplied having just raided a steamboat landing depot at Cow Island on the Missouri. The had also captured a train of freight wagons. They stopped at Snake Creek because of the abundant wildlife, especially the buffalo, they found there. They were busy hunting and preparing the meat for storage. They knew General Howard’s pursuing force was far behind them. They did not know about the troops under Miles approaching from the Southeast.
The site they chose for their camp was in a slight depression, difficult to see from a distance and a natural shelter. They had access to ample water. The hunters seen by Shambo in the morning had warned the tribe of the approaching danger. They quickly set about enhancing the natural defenses of the camp by digging riffle pits and shelters for the non-combatants in the soft alluvial soil of the creek bank.
By the time Col Miles sent his cavalry and mounted infantry charging toward their camp, the Nez Perce were more than ready. Most of the Army’s casualties occurred in those first few deadly moments as the troopers approached the lines of the Nez Perce. After that, the battle took on the elements of a siege. The Army had two artillery pieces that they tried to deploy. One was a rapid-loading Hotchkiss gun and this was the first time ever in which the gun was used in battle. Their initial efforts to place the guns in firing position resulted in such heavy fire from the Nez Perce that one of the guns was abandoned in the field. After it was recovered, neither gun proved effective against the dug in defenders.
During the siege, the Nez Perce horse herd had been driven off. This took away a vital means of escape. The Nez Perce had sent messengers to enlist the aid of Sitting Bull in Canada and the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre of Fort Belknap. Sitting Bull never came to their assistance. The other emissaries were reportedly killed by the Fort Belknap Indians. Finally, General Howard showed up, tipping the manpower balance heavily in favor of the Army. Chief Joseph entered into negotiations and on October 5th, he agreed to a surrender. Miles and Howard assured him that he would be allowed to return to his Idaho homeland and that none of his warriors would be executed. Joseph concluded the negotiations with his famous, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”
The Aftermath
Casualties among the opposing forces were roughly equal, 20-25 killed on each side. Of the 430 or so Nez Perce who surrendered, only 79 were warriors. During the battle about 100 Nez Perce under the escaped capture by slipping between the lines in the darkness. White Bird led a band of his followers to a Metis camp on the Milk River where they got some help. The Nez Perce who sought sanctuary in Canada faced a grim existence. Like the Lakota, they got no help from the government. Small parties gradually slipped away, hoping to make it to the Lapwai Reservation. Some did, but most were caught and exiled to Oklahoma to join Joseph. White Bird and a handful of others lingered on in Canada. White Bird was killed by another Nez Perce in 1892. Gradually, the few remaining Nez Perce in Canada died out or joined other bands of First Peoples.
Other escapees fared no better. The Gros Ventre and Assiniboine residents of the Fort Belknap Agency proved not to be their friends. Miles had warned them of severe consequences if they helped the Nez Perce. They took this warning seriously. There are accounts of individuals and small parties of Nez Perce escapees being killed or captured by Fort Belknap Indians. One 8-year old girl reportedly did survive and was raised by a family on the reservation. Another “very much abused” Nez Perce woman was recovered from a Gros Ventre camp by Canadian Mounties and returned to White Bird’s camp. A few scattered Nez Perce were captured by patrolling soldiers. A dozen Nez Perce were discovered taking refuge with ex-patriot “Canadian” Métis people on the Milk River.
After the battle the citizens of Fort Benton became increasingly apprehensive about the presence of the hostile Sioux and Nez Perce in the nearby Cypress Hills of Canada. Their hastily formed Home Guard and the handful of troops assigned to Fort Benton and Cow Island had proven to be no match for the Indians. As a consequence, Fort Assiniboine was established near today’s town of Havre in 1879. Louis Shambo is said to have helped the Army pick the location. He worked there for a number of years as a scout, interpreter and teamster. Meanwhile Canadian RCMP Major James Walsh had befriended Sitting Bull and was doing an exceptional job of maintaining order amongst the Indians of the Border Country.
Contrary to what they had been promised, the Nez Perce were relocated to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma. During this diaspora, many died of disease. In 1885 the Nez Perce were finally allowed to return to small reservations in Idaho and Washington State. Years later Louis Shambo said, “In my opinion they got a dirty deal.” Miles, a General by now and commanding the Department of the Columbia, took credit for the return of the Nez Perce to the Northwest. Joseph died on the Coieville, Washington Reservation in 1904. Shambo died in Havre, Montana in 1918.
REFERENCES:
In the Land of Chinook: The Story of Blaine County, A. J. Noyes, (1917).
Metis and the Medicine Line: Creating a Border and Dividing a People. Michel Hogue. (2015)
Grit, Guts and Gusto: A History of Hill County. Hill County Bicentennial Committee; (1976).
The Benton Record. (Fort Benton, Mont. Terr.). October 12, 1877.
The Benton Record. (Fort Benton, Mont. Terr.) December 14, 1877.
Nez Perce Summer 1877, Jerome A. Greene. Nez Perce NHP: Nez Perce Summer, 1877 (Table of Contents) (nps.gov)
The bodies of the soldiers killed at the Bear Paw Battle were interred where they fell. Decades later, they were disinterred and reburied at Fort Assiniboine. When that post closed, they were moved to Fort Keogh, near Miles City, Montana. The bodies were again moved after Fort Keogh was abandoned. Their final resting place is the Custer National Battlefield Cemetery.
Howard and Joseph: The Tortoise and the Hare
The Nez Perce War of 1877
The pursuit of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce by General Oliver O. Howard in 1877 ranks as one of the longest running battles in the history of the American West. Howard chased Joseph for nearly 1200 miles across Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. For the entire campaign, Howard was out-generaled by his wily opponent. It would be up to Colonel Nelson Miles to stop the Nez Perce in the Battle of the Bear’s Paw.
The Nez Perce call themselves the Niimiipuu (the people). Some forgotten French Trapper apparently mistook another tribe’s sign for them to mean that their noses were pierced. The tribe lived in the Upper Columbia River country of Northern Idaho and Eastern Oregon and Washington. It was the Nez Perce who welcomed Lewis and Clarck’s famished Corps of Discovery after their arduous 1805 trek over the Rockies. Occupying a land crucial to the fur trade and overland travel to the Oregon Territory, they quickly made friends with the new arrivals from the American and British fur companies.
Later they watched settlers and miners making their way into the Northwest. Missionaries brought them a taste of Christianity. One Nez Perce even translated the Gospel of Saint John into his own language. Many had put aside their buckskins and adopted the dress of their white neighbors, supplemented by gayly-colored bandanas. Preferring hunting and fishing over agriculture, they became fond of the latest in firearms. Superior marksmanship was one of their most notable skills. Each summer, they made annual journeys across the Rockies to hunt the buffalo of the Great Plains.
By 1877, there were two basic divisions within the Nez Perce. The “Treaty” group occupied the Lapwai Reservation in Northern Idaho. The “Non-Treaty” group consisted of various bands under chiefs like White Bird and Joseph who roamed free in other parts of the territory. Friction between the non-treaty Nez Perce and the Whites began to develop as more settlers and miners moved into their hunting grounds. In far off Washington, D.C. it was decided that the non-treaty bands would have to come in to the Lapwai reservation. The new Commander of the District of the Columbia (River), General Oliver Otis Howard, was tasked to bring them in.[1]
General Howard had experience both fighting and making peace with Native American tribes. As a young officer, he had seen service in the Seminole Wars of the 1850’s. More importantly, in 1872 he had served as a Peace Commissioner in Arizona and New Mexico. That mission had been wildly successful, bringing peace to an area long ravaged by wars with the Apaches. In between he had fought on the Union side during the Civil War, losing an arm in battle. At the end of the war, he was chosen by Lincoln himself to head up the Freedmen’s Bureau. In this position, he accomplished a great deal in assimilating the newly freed slaves into American society. Sadly, his role as peacemaker to the Nez Perce would not be so successful.
In early May of 1877, Howard called a council of the non-treaty Nez Perce at Lapwai to discuss the move to the reservation. Not wanting to appear weak, Howard negotiated with a heavy hand. The Nez Perce who refused to re-locate to the reservation would face war. To drive home the point, he arranged a demonstration of his powerful Gatling Gun. The Nez Perce took note. They resolved never to let themselves get anywhere near the cumbersome, carriage-mounted weapon. This knowledge would serve them well in the coming conflict.
Howard soon noted that the band most opposed to the reservation offer was a group he called the “Dreamers”. The Dreamers, or “Tooats” as the Nez Perce called them, were under the influence of a mystic named Toohoolhoolzote, or Too-hul-hul-sote as Howard spelled it. He preached that the Nez Perce should live freely, without cultivating the land or congregating on reservations. Disgusted by the prospect of being forced onto a reservation, Toohoolhoolzote told Howard, “We will go where we please, and do as we please. Who gave Washington rule over me?”[2]
A disgusted Howard threw Toohoolhoolzote in the stockade before the other Nez Perce could react. After they calmed down, hhen he took the chiefs on a tour of the Lapwai Reservation to pick out the lands that they would live upon. All seemed well with Joseph, his brother Ollokot and the other influential chief, White Bird. Upon returning to the Headquarters, Howard thought he had a deal. The non-treaty Nez Perce would collect their people and return to Lapwai in a month. He let himself be persuaded to release Toohoolhoolzote. Howard had achieved his “fait accompli”.
After briefly revisiting his headquarters in Portland, Howard returned to Lapwai via Fort Walla Walla to oversee the peaceful settlement of the Nez Perce on the reservation. His visit to Walla Walla was intended to calm the nerves of the local tribes and ensure they would not join any recalcitrant Nez Perce who refused to come in.
Meanwhile, the Nez Perce bands were assembling near Mount Idaho for one last Pow Wow before coming into the reservation. Warriors bragged about past feats of daring. Some nursed old grudges. A few got drunk. Soon a settler was killed, then four more. The panicked residents dispatched a courier to Lapwai begging for help. The just arrived Howard sent two companies of soldiers under Brevet Colonel Perry to their aid.
On June 16, 1877, Howard telegraphed his superiors, “The Indians began by murdering a white man. They have begun war upon the people near Mount Idaho, and Captain Perry started with two companies for them. Other troops are being brought forward as fast as possible. Give me the authority for 25 Indian scouts. I think we shall make short work of it.”[3]
On June 17, all hell broke lose for Perry’s force at the Battle of White Bird Canyon. They rode into an ambush in the canyon’s narrow confines. Thirty-four calvary men were killed. Others broke and ran losing most of their weapons and ammunition to the attackers.
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A scout named F. Williams gave an unfavorable account of Col. Perry’s troops during the White Bird Canyon debacle. “….upon the first fire….the soldiers broke ranks and retreated.” Their officers couldn’t rally them as they fled 10 miles back toward Mount Idaho. Williams said that the Indians had “better guns than the troops and their aim was deadly.”[4]
Howard was left with only a small garrison of troops at Lapwai. He immediately telegraphed for more. They would come from as far away as Alaska and California. They would come by rail, sea, riverboat and overland marches. Eventually he would command even more troops dispatched from the Department of the Platte. These included soldiers from Fort Shaw, Fort Ellis and the new Tongue River Cantonment in Montana.
By June 22, Howard departed Lapwai with a force of 200 troopers and joined Perry’s decimated command at Grangeville, Idaho. Volunteers and troops from throughout the area soon arrived to bolster the ranks. From 3-5 July a small blocking force under Captain Whipple and Colonel Perry failed to stop the Nez Perce in a series of skirmishes at Cottonwood, Idaho. Over a dozen men were killed and a group of 17 volunteers were cut off and imperiled.
Howard’s main force finally caught up with the hostiles at the Clearwater River on July 11th. Howard’s gatling gun and Howitzers proved ineffective as the warriors kept their distance. That night Joseph and the Nez Perce were able to trap Howard’s force in a narrow bend with their backs to the river.
The next morning, July the 12th, the Nez Perce vanished across the river. Howard was slow to pursue them. They got away with most of their stock and camp equipage.
After the Cottonwood and Clearwater battles, Howard began to receive criticism from the press. He “has been severely censured by the press as an incompetent commander and he has certainly done nothing so far to leave any other impression,” reported the paper at Deer Lodge. The hapless Colonel Perry also came under fire for his failure to quickly rescue 17 volunteers who were separately besieged at Cottonwood on July 5th. Perry could see their plight, but could only comment, “There is no use; they are gone.” Getting no help from Perry, their commander, Captain Randall, ordered a charge through the Nez Perce lines. They reached a safer place but one of the men was killed and Randall was mortally wounded. An hour later, Perry finally ordered 50 men to their assistance. Meanwhile the Nez Perce simply passed by Perry’s defenses.[5]
A few days after the Clearwater battle, the Nez Perce hood-winked Howard with a surrender proposal. This delayed his pursuit, but only resulted in the surrender of a handful of tribesmen. The Nez Perce would use this time to flee towards Montana.
On Jul 17th, Generals Howard and McDowell began warning the citizens of Montana about the eastward flight of the Nez Perce.
“A majority of the hostile Indians have fled to the Lo Lo Fork trail eastward to the buffalo country.” Telegraphed Howard.
Curiously, McDowell added from his California headquarters, “I consider this a most important success. Joseph is in full flight….” Montanans were not convinced that a party of well-armed Nez Perce warriors coming at them was anything like a success.
Howard left Kamia, Idaho on the 26th of July for the long and tedious march over the Lolo Trail to Montana. The first day his command made a whopping 6 miles. They were now 150 miles behind Joseph. Howard hoped a detachment of Colonel Gibbon‘s troops at Missoula would hold the hostiles at the other end of the Lolo Trail until he caught up.[6]
With the fugitives approaching Montana, the Deer Lodge paper began its relentless criticism Howard. The Christian general had been outwitted by Joseph. “With a smaller force he has out-maneuvered Howard at every turn, and in a fair fight has been a match for his troop.” Joseph, lacking Howard’s “Sunday School training”, had coyly proposed surrender and then slipped away.[7]
Then came the Fort Fizzle Fiasco of July 28, 1877. As the hostiles approached the Bitterroot Valley on the Lolo Trail, the little band of soldiers under Captain Rawn, supplement ed by volunteers built a barricade across a narrow portion of the trail. Somehow, Joseph either negotiated his way through their lines or found a way around them. Though the situation was tense, there were no casualties on either side. The Nez Perce then entered Montana’s Bitterroot Valley. So far, they bore no grudges against the local populace. They would proceed southward trading peaceably with the settlers and committing no depredations. Joined by Rawn’s small force, Gibbon would follow them to the Big Hole.
Meanwhile General Howard was catching more hell in the press. The Benton Record called him “Granny” Howard. Others accused him of not being aggressive enough in his pursuit. Some said he often stopped too long to lick his wounds or to hold Sunday services. His failure to catch Joseph on the Lolo Trail drew heavy criticism. His defenders, like Deputy U.S. Marshal Robbins of Idaho, claimed that the Nez Perce would have ambushed him from the two barricades he insisted had been built across the trail. Howard boasted that he had decisively beaten the Indians at the Clearwater. Like his boss, McDowell, he saw driving the hostiles out of Idaho and into Montana as a great achievement. He went on to assert that he had never rested and had taken the offensive at all times. He complained about his men having to march to the limits of human endurance. He called the stories of his inefficiency and slowness “palpably false”.[8]
On August 9, Howard wrote a letter to Montana Governor Potts to justify his actions. His cavalry was a day ahead of his infantry. He was pushing rapidly ahead to join General Gibbon.
With the Nez Perce now in Montana, panic began to overtake the territory’s scattered population of settlers, miners and ranchers. Rumors persisted that other dissatisfied tribes, like the Blackfeet and the Crow might join up with the hostiles. The feared Lakota Chief, Sitting Bull was camped in the Cypress Hills of the nearby British possessions. Would the victor at the Little Big Horn come to the aid of the renegades?
Alerted by Howard, the troops under General Gibbon at Fort Shaw were pressed into action. Marching first to Missoula, he collected Captain Rawn’s company and some local volunteers for the pursuit of Joseph. Gibbon found the hostile camp at the Big Hole. On the morning of August the 9th, he attacked the sleeping Nez Perce. In spite of the surprise, the battle did not go well for Gibbon’s force. The Nez Perce quickly rallied. They killed about thirty of the attackers, captured and disabled their Howitzer and drove Gibbon off to lick his wounds. Late to the ball as usual, Howard came up in time to help bury the dead. Then he resumed his pursuit.[9]
On August 31, the Deer Lodge paper reported that Howard had reached Henry’s Lake on the evening of the 24th close behind the Nez Perce. Stephen Frum told the paper that the Nez Perce fires were still warm when Howard arrived. Rather than pursuing the hostiles, Howard set up camp. The next day he went to Virginia City to get supplies. That resupply effort would detain the troops for 3 very long days. Frum also alleged, “Howard’s whole command was disgusted with the way they are doing, and denounce him as being entirely unfit for the position he holds…. He not only does not try to overtake the Indians, but allows them to catch him napping; his men will desert him; he travels no further in a day when within striking distance of the hostiles than he did crossing the Lo Lo Trail.” A month later the paper reported Frum now maintained he had been misquoted. He said there had been no burning Nez Perce campfires and that he did not say that: “Howard’s whole force was disgusted with the way they were doing.”[10]
Probably the only paper in the Montana Territory defending Howard at this point was the Herald of Helena. After news of the disaster at the Big Hole reached them, the Herald insisted that Howard was probably “hurrying forward in pursuit of the savages.….We believe Howard will not tarry an hour in the chase.” The paper went on to cite Howard’s bravery in his encounters with Joseph in Idaho and his heroism in the Civil War battle at Fair Oaks where he lost his arm.[11]
As panic swept the Montana Territory in the wake of the Big Hole Battle, the Weekly Herald summed up the grim picture with headlines like:
Stage coaches stopped.
Telegraph wire torn down.
United States mails suspended.
Through travel altogether suspended.
Express and freight to railroad effectually corralled.[12]
As the hostiles passed through Horse Prairie, it was reported that they had attacked a train of freight wagons on the 20th of August. They killed five men and captured a large amount of ammunition intended for Salmon City. Then the Nez Perce headed for Yellowstone Park where they killed couple of tourists.[13]
On the night of August 19, Howard was close to catching up with the Nez Perce. He camped on Camas Creek, near modern Dubois, Idaho. That was a mistake. The hostiles had camped there the night before. At 4AM, a raiding party attacked Howard’s camp bent on capturing his horses and mules. They managed to take most of the mules and a band of horses belonging to the volunteers. Some of the demoralized volunteers simply went home in disgust and claimed top dollar for the loss of their mounts. Losing his pack animals further slowed Howard down. Thirty years later, Howard would claim (falsely) that he recovered most of the lost stock.
Following the Camas creek debacle, the Deer Lodge paper published a long article critical of General Howard. Howard had been slow to move to support Gibbon during the Big Hole Battle. When he got there, he wasted time burying Nez Perce dead. The paper speculated that Howard wasn’t up to the task of fighting the hostiles. He had allowed himself to be tricked by propositions of surrender by the Nez Perce at Cottonwood. Then he lost a major portion of his pack train at Camas Creek, reducing his mobility. The Nez Perce, “have achieved renown for intrepid courage and indominatable purpose….” The article then suggested Howard be replaced by a more competent commander.[14]
The New North West’s article was almost prophetic. On August 24, Howard began an exchange of communications with General of the Army, William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman had made his way to the Montana Territory to monitor the unfolding events. Howard complained about the fatigue of his men and mounts after losing most of his pack animals at Camas Creek.
He begged Sherman, “What I wish is that by some eastern force the hostiles be headed off before they disaffect the Crows or unite with the Sioux….I hear that Miles, probably Sturgis, is on the Yellowstone, not far from my front.”
In response Sherman told Howard that his force should “pursue the Nez Perce to the death, lead where they may.” Then he struck a blow at Howard’s military prowess, “If you are tired give the command to some young, energetic officer, and let him follow them….”
A chastised Howard responded that, “You misunderstood me; I never flag.” It was his command, including its “most energetic young officers, that were worn out…. You cannot doubt my pluck and energy.”[15]
The New North-West continued to heap scorn upon Howard as the hostiles repeatedly outdistanced him. They quoted the Helena Herald as saying, Howard “fights his battles in the newspapers, and Gibbon hunts Indians and fights them.” Howard had been “outgeneraled” and “as an Indian fighter (he) is a dead failure.”[16]
The Nez Perce next sought help from the Crows of the Yellowstone country. The Crows, however, valued their relations with the Whites and refused to join or aid the hostiles. Many of them signed up to serve as scouts under Colonel Sturgis. Operating from the Tongue River Cantonment near what would become Miles city, Sturgis had joined the chase. Sturgis and the Crow scouts caught up with the Nez Perce as they left the Yellowstone via the narrow confines of Canyon Creek, just west of modern Billings. The Crow managed to capture several hundred of the Nez Perce horses and even claimed to have taken a few scalps. The route up Canyon Creek took the Nez Perce north to the Musselshell which flowed into the Missouri. It was now becoming clearer that they intended to make a dash for the border and seek refuge with Sitting Bull’s Lakota.[17]
The Nez Perce crossed the Missouri River at Cow Island. The island was an important transfer depot for Missouri river traffic when the water was low. A trail led up Cow Creek to Fort Benton, where the goods could be distributed. The Nez Perce besieged the dozen soldiers guarding the supplies, pilfered what they could and set fire to the rest. Simultaneously, they attacked a train of freight wagons bound for Fort Benton, killing one man. They looted and burned the wagons as well.
By now Sturgis had turned back and encountered Howard to his rear. As they joined forces, it looked very much like the Nez Perce would soon escape to Canada. Howard wrote that, “There was little hope of overtaking the Indians by direct pursuit.” Howard then sent a dispatch to Colonel Miles at the Tongue River Cantonment near Miles City. “I earnestly request you to make every effort in your power to prevent the escape of this hostile band, and at least to hold them in check until I can overtake them.”
Miles answered back, “I fear your information reaches me too late for me to intercept them, but I will do the best I can.” Sturgis already had some of his best troops, but the aggressive Miles would find a way to make do. He requested a steamer be dispatched from Fort Bufford to support both Howard’s and his own forces. He already had a small force on its way to the Missouri that he could catch up with. He scrounged captured Indian ponies to mount his infantry. Leaving Tongue River on September the 18th. He had hoped to head off Joseph off at the mouth of the Musselshell before they crossed the Missouri. But, by the time he reached that river couriers from Cow Island informed him Joseph’s was already across. Miles’ only chance of catching Joseph was to outrace him to the Milk River country. He used his cannon to hail the steamer Fontenelle and crossed the Missouri. Then he marched around the east side of the Little Rockies. Sensing that Howard and Sturgis were lagging far behind, the Nez Perce had stopped to rest at Snake Creek, just short of the Milk River, their last obstacle on the way to Canada. Later, the Helena Herald would proclaim that Howard’s strategy had been to take pressure off the Nez Perce by slowing his pursuit. This allowed Miles time to intercept them as they paused at Snake creek. (Source: Nez Perce NHP: Nez Perce Summer, 1877 (Chapter 11) (nps.gov))
Meanwhile, Howard told his companions that he, “had asked the great Master for success, even if the credit were given to another.” His prayer was soon answered as a messenger reached his column with news that Miles had intercepted Joseph and had him besieged at Snake Creek near the Bear Paw Mountains. By the time he reached the Missouri, the steamer Benton was waiting to take him across. The battle had simmered down when Howard approached the lines of Colonel Miles. Wisely, he left Miles in charge and offered the use of his Nez Perce interpreters to help Miles arrange the surrender. The six-day battle ended with Joseph’s surrender on the following day, October the 5th, 1877.
Even after the surrender of the Nez Perce, some Montana papers continued to eviscerate General Howard. The Benton Record blamed the protracted chase on Howard’s “non-come uptiveness.” At first Howard had under-estimated the strength and military capabilities of the hostiles. The paper said that by the time he realized his mistake, his force was too “broken down to rectify the error.” Howard clearly felt the need to defend his reputation after the surrender. In a battlefield interview with a reporter from the Record, Howard complained “that all of the newspapers from Montana were liars.” [18]
Joseph and Howard would meet once again in 1904 at the Carlisle Pennsylvania Indian School. With both men nearing the end of their lives, it was a very cordial event. See The Red Man and Helper March 18,1904.:The Great Chief Joseph and Gen. Oliver Otis Howard meet at the Carlisle Indian School, 1904 (epix.net)
In his 1907 book, Howard summed up his campaign against the Nez Perce, “In peace the non-treaty Nez Perces were restless and fretful, in war none fought with greater bravery, nor do I believe that any other body of Indians was ever more ably led than they under Chief Joseph, who displayed consummate generalship in his conduct of the campaign.”[19]
Perhaps the Nez Perce had a better description of Howard than he did of them. They called him “General-Day-After-Tomorrow”.[20]
LDT 13 Feb ‘20
[1] My Life and Experiences Among the Hostile Indians. 1907. O.O. Howard
[2] Ibid. Howard.
[3] The Avant Courier, Bozeman, Mont. Terr. June 28, 1877.
[4] The New North-West. Deer Lodge, Montana. June 22, 1877.
[5] The New North-West. Deer Lodge, Montana. July 13, 1877.
[6] The Avant Courier. July 26, 1877. Bozeman, Montana Territory.
[7] The New North-West. Deer Lodge, Montana. July 27, 1877.
[8] The Avant Courier. August 16, 1877. Bozeman, Montana.
[9] The New North West, Deer Lodge, Montana. August 17, 1877.
[10] The New North-West. Deer Lodge, Montana. August 31, and September 28,1877.
[11] Helena Weekly Herald. Helena, Montana. August 16, 1877.
[12] The Weekly Herald. Helena, Montana. August 23, 1877.
[13] The Helena Weekly Herald. Helena, Montana. August 30, 1877.
[14] The New North West. Deer lodge, Montana. August 24, 1877.
[15] The Weekly Herald. Helena, Montana. December 6, 1877.
[16] The New North-West. Deer Lodge, Mont. Sept. 7, 1877.
[17] Helena Weekly Herald. Helena, Montana. September 27, 1877.
[18] The Benton Record. Fort Benton, Montana. October 12, 1877.
[19] Ibid. Howard.
[20] Battle of the Clearwater – Wikipedia
Bear Paw Battle Memorial
Updated: Dec 25, 2019
Article from 1903:
Bear’s Paw Battle Burials
GIVEN NEW BURIAL. Soldiers Who Perished in Indian War Reinterred. Havre. Aug. 21.
“- The remains of the twenty soldiers who fell in the battle of Bear Paw 25 years ago were transported today from their temporary resting place on the old battle ground to the post cemetery at Assiniboine. A week ago a detachment of soldiers were detailed to go up Snake creek and exhume the bodies of the dead heroes. They completed their work Thursday and departed for Assiniboine. “The bones of the men were found just as they had been laid a quarter of a century ago after the battle of the Bear Paw. Occasionally fragments of clothing brass buttons and here and there a belt buckle was found, but other than this there was nothing that would lead to the identity of any of the bodies. The bones were all collected with care and placed in heavy cloth sacks. They will be buried at the’ post with proper exercises. “Historically the battle of the Bear Paw marked an Important epoch in the history of the early Indian warfare. It was at that battle that Chief Joseph surrendered to General Howard and General Miles, who were then directing the campaign, after a march of more than a thousand miles from Idaho, where the chase after the Nez Perces started.
“The officers, Captain Hale and Lieutenant Beadle*, were killed in the engagement, as well as the twenty enlisted men whose bodies were exhumed this week. Colonel Maus who was chief of General Miles, staff at the time of the general’s retirement was also in the battle.
“General Miles visited Assiniboine a year and a half ago and instituted an inquiry as to the whereabouts of the bodies of the soldiers who fell in the battle of the Bear Paw. It was generally supposed that they had been transferred to one of the national burying grounds and it was subsequently discovered that the bodies lay in a ranch at Snake creek Just as they had been interred the day after the memorable battle.”
*Lt Johnathan W. Biddle
Fergus County Argus. (Lewistown, MT.) Aug 26, 1903. .
Note: Fort Assiniboine closed in 1911. The bodies were then moved to Fort Keogh, near Miles City, Montana. When Keogh closed in 1924 the remains were moved to the Custer National Cemetery. They were buried in a common grave with other soldiers from Fort Keogh. The monument was moved from Fort Keogh to mark the spot.
Medal of Honor winner, Corporal John Haddo, was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Bear’s Paw.
Louis Shambo- Obituary
Louis Shambo (Shambeau) 1846-1918
“LOUIS SHAMBO, PRIEND OF PERSHING, HITS LAST TRAIL IN THIS CITY Special to The Record-Herald.”
“HAVRE, Nov. 7.—Louis Shambo, one of the pioneer scouts of the northwest, is dead here. The late scout was born in Graceville, Minn., in 1846, and he was one of the greatest scouts blazing the trail to civilization known to the west. He was a government scout and guide with General Miles during the time of the capture of Chief Joseph in the Bear Paw mountain district in 1876. After this he served in the capacity of scout and interpreter for the government. He was a special friend of General Pershing in the early ’90s at Fort Assiniboine in his official capacity as interpreter and government scout.
Shambo was very reticent in his demeanor, silent and reserved, friends only in his reminiscent mood could get him to divulge his experience of the early days. Volumes could be written of private history related in his personal experience. He lived as a boy among the Chippewas of Minnesota, grew to manhood among the manners and customs of the aborigines, graduated in the school of frontier life, thus becoming a valuable servant to the government in later years as one of the most valiant and reliable scouts that this country has ever known. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Maggie Burch, and a son, Edward Shambo, both of Dodson area.”
NOTE: Before he became a scout for Col Nelson Miles, Shambo apparently worked for General George Crook in the Department of the Platte during the 1870’s. His fellow scout, Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly, recommended him to Miles as Miles set out in pursuit of the Nez Perce. Shambo was familiar with the area as he had previously lived among the French and Indian Metis along the Milk River. After the Bear Paw Battle, Shambo worked as a scout, packer, interpreter and messenger at Fort Assiniboine. By the time it closed in 1911, he had moved to Havre. In his later years he alternated his time between cowboying in the summer and bartending in the winter. Two years before he died, he took up a homestead south of Havre. The area around today’s Beaver Creek Park was once referred to as the Shambo township. Shambo was married to a Gros Ventre woman from Fort Belknap. They had five children and some of their descendants still reside on the reservation.
Reference: findagrave.com Memorial No: 85691425
For additional information on Louis Shambo, a.k.a. Louis Shambeau, see:
Grit, Guts and Gusto: A History of Hill County. Hill County Bicentennial Committee; (1976). Pages 308-311. (To view online see mtmemory.org (Same Title, Pages 319-322.)
Outlaws, Outrages and Outright Lies 