SELLING YOUR FATHER’S BONES
The Epic Fate of the American West
BRIAN SCHOFIELD
CONTENTS
Dedication
Epigraph
List of Illustrations
Prologue
Maps
1 Homeland
2 Settlement
3 Fever
4 Poison
5 Outbreak
6 Unequal War
7 To the Big Hole
8 Survival
9 Crescendo
10 Climax
11 ‘We’re Still Here’
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
Copyright
About the Publisher
DEDICATION
For my grandfather
EPIGRAPH
‘I believe…that sooner or later…somewhere…somehow…we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken’
The Lone Ranger’s Creed
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| Page | |
| 5 | Nimiipuu petroglyphs © Author |
| 21 | The Rev. Henry Spalding © National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution (GN 02973) |
| 24 | Dancers at the Tamkaliks Celebration © Author |
| 33 | The Wallowa Valley © Author |
| 46 | A sketch of Tuekakas © Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma |
| 61 | Chief Lawyer, 1868 © Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Nez Perce National Historical Park. Photo number: NEPE-HI-0395. Photographer: Shindler A. Zeno. 1868. Location: Washington DC |
| 79 | General Oliver Otis Howard © The O.O. Howard Papers, Manuscripts Division. Moorland-Spingarn Research Centre, Howard University |
| 82 | Traditionalist, or ‘Dreamer’ Nez Perce, 1876 © Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Nez Perce National Historical Park. Photo number: NEPE-HI-1683. Photographer and date unknown. Location: Spalding, Idaho |
| 98 | The likely Nez Perce crossing point on the Snake River © Author |
| 102 | Uncle Sam heads west © Historical Society of Montana, Helena |
| 105 | Irrigation in the Wallowa Valley © Author |
| 124 | White Bird Canyon © Author |
| 132 | The Camas Prairie © Author |
| 139 | Chief Looking Glass © National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution (GN02953a) |
| 145 | Yellow Wolf © Historical Society of Montana, Helena |
| 149 | Pow-Wow in Idaho © Author |
| 161 | Indian prayer site on the Lolo Trail © Author |
| 170 | The Checkerboard © Science Photo Library |
| 192 | Smokestacks in Butte © Historical Society of Montana, Helena |
| 198 | The Berkeley Pit © Historical Society of Montana, Helena |
| 206 | Chief Charlot © Historical Society of Montana, Helena |
| 217 | Colonel John Gibbon © Denver Public Library, Western History Collection |
| 221 | Lodgepoles at Big Hole © Author |
| 235 | US Army’s makeshift defences at Camas Meadows © Author |
| 243 | George Cowan © Historical Society of Montana, Helena |
| 254 | Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis © Denver Public Library, Western History Collection |
| 263 | The northern plains © Author |
| 284 | Abandoned farmstead, Wheatland County © Author |
| 288 | The Missouri Breaks badlands © Author |
| 290 | A ‘zeroed-out’ school © Author |
| 297 | Colonel Nelson A. Miles © Historical Society of Montana, Helena |
| 310 | The memorial to Chief Joseph’s declaration of surrender © Author |
| 314 | Chief Joseph © National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution (GN 02905) |
| 350 | Horace Axtell and Rebecca Miles © Katherine Jones, The Idaho Statesman |
Prologue
As THE SUN glowed red across the grassland, a group of children headed away from the village, through the willow trees, to squeeze a few more games from the fading daylight. The boys, mimicking their fathers, played with sticks and bones along the banks of the winding creek, their shrieks fading into the great expanse of the valley — until a chill cut through the air, and it was time to light a fire. The gang gathered wood and huddled close to the flames. Then, as an unfamiliar presence entered the circle of light, they fell to frozen silence. ‘Two men came there wrapped in grey blankets. They stood close, and we saw they were white men.’
The youngsters bolted towards the village in a panic, but when they looked back, the men in the grey blankets had disappeared -and they were soon forgotten as the games began again. Bed-time came, and the children lay down without sharing this unsettling sight with their elders.
That night, the village held a celebration, to mark a day of rest and calm, and good hunting amongst the dense herds of the grasslands. The seven hundred Nez Perce were many miles from home, they’d been travelling for almost two months to reach this riverbank, and they had still further yet to travel — but today, at least, they were at peace, and for that they gave thanks. The warriors paraded through the encampment,