Nez Perce War

The sign's trouble was a people refusing removal. The non-treaty Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) bands had been ordered onto a reservation cut down by an 1863 treaty their leaders never signed, and after the army's attack on their camp at the Big Hole they were moving east toward Yellowstone and Crow country. Before dawn on August 20, after one man's vision, 28 men led by Ollokot, Looking Glass and Toohoolhoolzote raided Howard's camp at Camas Meadows, which they called Kamisnim Takin, and ran off some 200 mules. Howard sent to Virginia City for more.

What the plaque says

Nez Perce War When General O. O. Howard tried to get more than 600 Nez Perce Indians to settle on a North Idaho reservation in 1877, he ran into a lot of trouble here. On their way to Yellowstone Park, Chief Joseph's Nez Perce people reached Hole in the Rock Station (four miles north of here), August 16, and shut down stage service to Montana. Howard's cavalry and volunteers followed only a day behind until August 20, when an Indian force made off with over 100 army mules. That raid halted military pursuit and forced Howard to continue his Nez Perce campaign for six more weeks. 427 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• St. Anthony Sand Dunes — 24 mi
  Four hundred feet of white sand, open to machines most of the year and closed to people when the elk come down.

More markers nearby

• Beaver Canyon — 16 mi
• Menan Buttes — 28 mi
• Beaver Dick — 29 mi
• Brigham Young University-Idaho — 33 mi