The Battle of Bears Paw

The panel names Joseph one of five remaining Nimiipuu leaders and leaves out how others died. On the first day, September 30, 1877, Joseph's younger brother Ollokot was killed; the Park Service counts 26 Nimiipuu dead by nightfall. Lean Elk, whose hurried pace north had been set aside for Looking Glass's rest, was shot in the drizzle by Nimiipuu who mistook him for an enemy. Toohoolhoolzote fell too. Looking Glass left his rifle pit at a shout that a Lakota rider was coming and was killed, October 2 by Yellow Wolf's memory, October 5 by other accounts.

What the plaque says

The Battle of Bears Paw This battle was fought September 30 to October 5, 1877, on Snake Creek, about 20 miles south of here near the Bears Paw Mountains, where after a five days' siege Chief Joseph, one of five remaining Nez Perce leaders, surrendered to Col. Nelson A. Miles of the U.S. Army. The usual forked-tongue methods of the whites, which had deprived these Indians of their hereditary lands, caused Joseph and six other primary chiefs to lead their people on a tortuous 2000 mile march from their home in Idaho to evade U.S. troops and gain sanctuary in Canada. These great Indian generals fought against fearful odds. They and their warriors could have escaped by abandoning their women, children and wounded. They refused to do this. Joseph's courage and care for his people were admired by Col. Miles who promised him safe return to Idaho. One of the blackest records in our dealings with the Indians was the Government's repudiation of this promise and the subsequent treatment accorded Joseph and his followers.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bear Paw Battlefield — 15 mi
  The siege ground on Snake Creek where the Nimiipuu war of 1877 ended, and where seven years of exile began.
• Havre Beneath the Streets — 20 mi
  Basement storefronts under a railroad town that burned twice in one January day in 1904, furnished now as a tour.