1877 — June 13-16, Nez Perce young men with grievances kill settlers, so. Tolo Lake area, ID–16-18

— ~28 Pardoe. An Illustrated History of North Idaho. 1903, Sec. 16-18, pp. 52-58.
–16-18 Greene. Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The US Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis. 2001, pp. 28-31.
Killed:
1. August Bacon
2. James Baker
3. Henry Burn Beckrodge
4. Samuel Benedict
5. Robert Bland
[H. C. Brown, killed at his store on Salmon River according to NYT, 6-23-1877.]
6. John Chamberlin
7. Infant daughter of John Chamberlin (3-years old according to McDermott, 32, 42)
8. Frank Chodoze
9. Lew Day (died afterwards from injuries)
10. Richard Devine
11. Jurden Henry Elfers
12. Charles Horton
13. Harry Mason
14. F. Joseph Moore (died later from injuries)
15. Benjamin B. Norton
16. William Osborne
Killed or Captured:
1. Mrs. Jennet Manuel
2. 11-month-old baby of Mrs. Manuel
Wounded:
1. John Chamberlin daughter
2. John Chamberlin’s wife
3. John J. Manuel
4. 7-year-old daughter of Mrs. Jennet Manuel
5. Jennie Norton, wife of Benjamin Norton
Raped:
1. John Chamberlin’s wife was shot with an arrow and raped
2. Elizabeth Osborn
3. Helen Walsh.
Nez Pierce Killed (apparently uninvolved in the attacks – target of “convenience.”
1. Warrior named Jyeloo
–16-18 Wikipedia. “Nez Perce War.” 10-12-2012 modification.
— 17 Searl, Molly. Montana Disasters: Fires, Floods, and Other Catastrophes. 2001, p. 88.
— 15 National Park Service. “Tolo Lake during the Nez Perce Flight of 1877.” 12-29-2022 update.

— 5 Salmon River Massacre. NYT. “The Indian Hostilities. The Salmon River Massacres.” 6-23-1877.
— 5 Norton Massacre. McDermott. Forlorn Hope: The Nez Perce victory at White Bird Canyon. 29-42.

These attacks were the precipitating events which led to the Nez Pierce War and flight.

Narrative Information

National Park Service: “By June 2, 1877, at least 600 nimíipuu [Nez Perce; sometimes spelled Nee-Me-Poo] from several ‘non-treaty’ bands, including Chief Joseph’s band, gathered at Tolo Lake. They were sorrowfully complying with the U.S. government’s demand to leave their traditional homelands and resettle on the smaller Nez Perce Reservation near Lapwai [NW ID]. This demand stung—the reservation was a tenth of that guaranteed by the Treaty of 1855, now reduced by the “Thief Treaty” of 1863, which these bands had never signed.

“Emotions ran high as the people’s last few days of true freedom came to an end. On the night of June 13, three young warriors from White Bird’s band, Wáalaytic (Shore Crossing), Sáapsis ’ilp’ílp (Red Mocassin Tops) and Wetyétmes wehéyqt (Swan Necklace), incensed by past injustices at the hands of white settlers, left the encampment in search of Larry Ott, who had killed one of their fathers a few years earlier. Unable to find him, they raided other settlements instead, killing a number of people. Several more warriors joined them on June 14, and by the end of the day they had slain 15 settlers. Fear gripped both settlers and the rest of the nimíipuu on the Salmon River and Camas Prairie.

“The chiefs were in council when they heard about the raids on the Salmon River settlers. Fearing retribution, the council ended abruptly as people and stock were gathered to depart to a safer place to await the coming U.S. Army….”

Searl: “….the Nez Perce…made their home for the most part in the area where the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho border each other. As the miners, the settlers, and the stockmen moved westward into that area, the United States government offered the Nez Perce a treaty so that conflicts would be avoided between the natives and the new arrivals. It seemed a fair treaty and it gave the tribe authority over most of their ancestral lands. Under the terms of the treaty, non-Indians could live on reservation land only with the tribe’s permission. It was a fair agreement for everyone, and the treaty was signed in 1855.

“….When gold was discovered on Nez Perce land in 1860, the miners and settlers in the area thought they had been short-changed in the deal and put pressure on the government to draft a new treaty reducing the reservation to about a tenth of its original size. The Nez Perce tribe was made up of several bands, each with its own chief. The chiefs whose land fell within the new reservation reluctantly signed the new treaty. About a third of the tribe, those whose land was outside the new reservation refused to participate in the treaty and became known as the ‘non-treaty’ Nez Perce.

“The non-treaty bands of the Nez Perce stayed where they were until 1877, when more and more settlers and miners arrived; this is when the Bureau of Indian Affairs demanded that the remaining bands move onto reservation land. When they did not comply, General Oliver O. Howard was assigned to force their compliance. In mid-May of that year, General Howard gave the Nez Perce an ultimatum: They had to be on the reservation within thirty days.

“Chief Joseph tried to reason with General Howard. He told the general that it would be impossible to round up all their horses and stock in that time. He tried to made the general understand that fall would be a better time for the move; the Snake River would be low then and he could move his band and their belongings more safely. General Howard refused to reconsider, however, and the deadline stood with a threat of force if it wasn’t met.

“The non-treaty chiefs were not happy about the arrangement, but knew that their people were better off not doing battle with the soldiers. Despite the difficulties, they persuaded their people to move. Not all the Nez Perce were content to accept the decision of the government without resistance, however.

“When the Nez Perce had made camp a few miles from the reservation, on the last leg of the journey, three young warriors bent on revenge attacked several white settlers who had cheated or killed members of their families. Frustrated with the way they had been treated, other warriors joined in; by the end of two days, seventeen settlers had been killed.”

[Searl then describes how a flight for safety ensued when the chief men of the tribe learned of the murders, and the skirmishes and battles that resulted, which we pick-up under the dates for conflicts wherein ten or more died.] (Searl, Molly. Montana Disasters: Fires, Floods, and Other Catastrophes. 2001, pp. 86-88.)

Greene: “….Another source of contention that had developed concerning the frequency of Nez Perce murders at the hands of white men. As many as twenty-five tribesmen had been slain in the interval since the onset of the gold rush, and justice had been meted out badly or not at all. A singular case that profoundly affected the course of events three years later was the shooting death of Tipyahlana Siskan (Eagle Robe), a nontreaty Indian, by a settler named Lawrence Ott in the spring of 1874 on the Salmon River. The dispute between the two evolved over land, and although Ott turned himself in, he went unpunished for the crime. The Ott affair signaled the growing frustration that the Nez Perce felt regarding their relations with the whites vis-à-vis their lands…. [pp. 13-14.]

“Following the council at Fort Lapwai with General Howard [May 1877], the Nez Perces [sic] started for their home areas to gather in their livestock and prepare for the move onto the reservation. Joseph and Ollokot crossed the Snake River at Lewiston and ascended the Grande Ronde River to their camp near the mouth of Joseph Creek in t he Wallowa Valley. White Bird and Toohoolhoolzote led their bands south to the Salmon River. Looking Glass headed east to his home on the Middle Clearwater above the subagency of Kamiah and within the reservation boundary…. [p. 25.]

“Around June 3, the [Nez Perce] people began converging at the sacred grounds of Tepahlewam (Split Rocks, or Deep Cuts) on Camas Prairie near a large pond at the time referred to as ‘the lake,’ but today called Tolo Lake, about six miles west of Grangeville [north central Idaho]. Those assembling included the five recognized nontreaty bands, as follows: The Wallowas, with Joseph, Ollokot, and other leaders, included 55 men; the Lamtamas, or so-called White Gird band, under their principal chief, White Bird, included 50 men; the Alpowais of Looking Glass included 40 men (all were not present at the assembly); the Pikunans of Toohoolhoolzote, who had travelled over from the Wallowa with Joseph and Ollokot, included 30 men; and Husis Kute and the Palouses included 16 men, for a total of 191. Only half of these, say 95, were warriors, the rest being either too young or old for that designation. There were also approximately 400 women and children in all the bands, so that the total nontreaty Nez Perce population at Tolo Lake stood at slightly less than 600.

“Tolo Lake…had historically afforded a popular early summer rendezvous where the Nee-Me-Poo could observe their Dreamer ceremonies, greet friends and relatives in other bands, race their ponies, exchange gifts, and father the popular camas bulbs. At Tolo Lake, too, the Nez Perce leaders of the different bands represented their people in the council, and the decisions of the council regarding peace and war became binding on all. Generally, war leadership evolved based on a warrior’s record and commensurate ranking status and his ability to attract and maintain a followership. Joseph, a civil leader and descendant of a popular chief, was not regarded as such among the people, and he was, moreover, apparently without extensive military experience. Nonetheless, as co-leader of the large Wallowa band, Joseph stood as in influential force in multi-band councils. Conversely, the other Wallowa co-leader, Ollokot, was highly regarded in military matters, and he provided skilled counsel during the subsequent struggle. Other noted war leaders included Whit Bird, chief of the Lamtamas, who in his mid-fifties was well past warrior age but possessed considerable knowledge accrued during his many years and was viewed as a senior adviser; Chuslum Moxmox (Yellow Bull), a war leader, also of the Lamtamas; Looking Glass, the Alpowai, fortyish and well respected for his war prowess, and who emerged as perhaps the dominant military leader as the conflict wore on; Toohoolhoolzote, chief of the Pikunans; Koolkool Snehee (Red Owl), an Alpowai headman of Looking Glass’s band; Wahchumyus (Rainbow) and Pahkotos Owyeen (Five Wounds), who were not present at Lake Tolo but who shortly joined White Bird’s people.

“The Lake Tolo councils in 1877 witnessed prolonged and rancorous debate among the leaders of the different bands regarding their imminent movement onto the reservation. Despite the agreements made at Fort Lapwai in May, many tribesmen bridled at giving up their freedom and their lands, and the growing furor over the issue produced much dissension, building resentment and second-guessing over the earlier decision. Against the backdrop of this tense and emotional convocation occurred an incident that further obscured past consensus, intensified the fractiousness and sense of rage among their people, and in the end provoked irrevocable armed conflict. On June 13, shortly before the deadline for removing onto the reservation, White Bird’s band held a tel-lik-leen ceremony at the Tolo Lake camp in which the warriors paraded on horseback in a circular movement around the village while individually boasting of their battle prowess and war deeds. According to Nez Perce accounts, an aged warrior named Hahkauts Ilpilp (Red Grizzly Bear) challenged the presence in the ceremony of several young participants whose relatives’ deaths at the hands of whites had gone unavenged. One named Wahlitits (Shore Crossing) was the son of Eagle Robe, who had been shot to death by Lawrence Ott three years earlier. Thus humiliated and apparently fortified with liquor, Shore Crossing and two of his cousins, Sarpsisilpilp (Red Moccasin Top) and Wetyemtmas Wahyakt (Swan Necklace), set out for the Salmon River settlements on a mission of revenge. On the following evening, Swan Necklace returned to the lake to announce that the trio had killed four white men and wounded another who had previously treated the Indians badly; Lawrence Ott, however, had not been found. Inspired by the war furor, approximately sixteen more young men rode off to join Shore Crossing in raiding the settlements.

“The news of the killings electrified the assemblage, and now anticipating inevitable confrontation with Howard’s soldiers, the bands started moving away from the lake. The so-called treaty people present in the camp, afraid of being implicated in the murders, hurried back to the reservation while the nontreaties traveled to Cottonwood Creek. Seeking to avoid trouble with the soldiers, Looking Glass led his people back to their tract near the mouth of Clear Creek on the Middle Clearwater…. [pp. 28-30.]
….
“The three warriors who initiated it on June 13, having failed to find Lawrence Ott, traveled to the ranch of Richard Devine, nine miles above Slate Creek, where they shot him to death and took his rifle. Reversing direction and heading north to John Day Creek, the three next day encountered Jurden Henry Elfers, Henry Burn Beckrodge, and Robert Bland, killing them and riding off on their horses. Continuing down the Salmon, they happened on storekeeper Samuel Benedict, out checking his cattle near the mouth of White Bird Creek, and wounded him. Benedict escaped. It was then that the warrior, Swan Necklace, returned to the gathering on Camas Prairie to boast of their exploits and recruit the other young men. Thus reinforced, the warriors attacked John J. Manuel’s ranch, two miles above the mouth of White Bird Creek, wounding Manuel and setting his buildings ablaze. Encountering Samuel Benedict again, they shot him as he attempted to flee across White Bird Creek, killing him along with settlers August Bacon and James Baker. On June 15, the warriors continued their raiding, killing or capturing Mrs. Jennet Manuel and her eleven-month-old baby, and killing William Osborne and Harry Mason. Mrs. Manuel’s seven-year-old daughter escaped with wounds. They raped two women, Helen Walsh and Elizabeth Osborn. On the next day, a miner of the Salmon named Frank Chodoze was killed and his cabin burned. The crisis escalated with the killing by volunteers from Mount Idaho of a Nez Perce warrior named Jyeloo southwest of the community, and the Indians’ retaliatory slaying later that day of settler Charles Horton. As the reality of the outbreak spread, fear mounted among the residents of Mount Idaho and Grangeville.

“In one of the most startling incidents of the outbreak, Benjamin B. Norton, proprietor of Norton’s Ranch or the Cottonwood House, twenty miles northwest of Mount Idaho, sought to remove his family and guests to safety late in the evening of June 14. As the settlers’ wagons proceeded toward Grangeville, warriors struck in the darkness, killing the horses, then shooting Norton, who died before morning, and wounding F. Joseph Moore, Lew Day, and Norton’s wife, Jennie. Moore was an employee of Norton’s, while Day had been en route from Mount Idaho to Fort Lapwai with news of the Salmon River killings. Both Moore and Day died later from their injuries. A nine-year-old son, Hill. B. Norton, and eighteen-year-old Lynn Bowers, sister of Jennie Norton, fled into the night. In the suddenness of the assault, John Chamberlin and his infant daughter were killed and his other daughter wounded, while Chamberlin’s wife was shot with an arrow and raped. Next morning, patrolling citizens found the survivors and ushed them into Mount Idaho before proceeding to the scene of the attack, about five miles west of Grangeville, and rescuing the wounded. The relief party narrowly escaped being attacked by Nez Perces advancing from Tolo Lake.

“Beyond the killings, the Nez Perces’ raiding left widespread destruction, with many homes, barns, and outbuildings burned and plundered and horses, cattle, and hogs driven off or killed. There were frequent incidents of crops being destroyed. After their rampage along the Salmon, the warriors focused on farms and ranches on Camass Prairie, some near the lake when the bands had assembled. By then mot of the Salmon River settlers had found refuge at Slate Creek, where a stockage was raised, while others sought relief in Mount Idaho and Grangeville. At Mount Idaho, the small hotel was pressed into service as a hospital, and on a hill north of town, residents hurriedly threw up a circular barricade of logs, rocks, and sacks of flour. At Grangeville, an upright stockade was raised around the grange hall. Almost all the people wh0 experienced losses filed claims within months, and most received smaller than requested wards over the next few years.

“There is no accounting for what happened in these attacks. Perhaps the events of June 1877 represented the culmination of a cultural crisis that had long simmered among the Nee-Me-Poo. The causes were many: Decades of cultural identity gone awry through repeated land swindles – by both the United States government and individual settlers. Missionary-inspired confusion over what the people should believe of the supernatural and the natural worlds, and over who the people were versus who they should be. The usual litany of broken promises. The repeated cases of physical abuse including the rape of Nez Perce women. The introduction of alcohol. The cupidity of crooked whites. The multitude of other Indian-white contact experiences that promoted grievances without redress. And all these issues led to the intratribal factionalism that had affected so many other tribes in similar ways.

“The striking out by Shore Crossing and his followers against individual white men who had at various times wronged the Nez Perces only symbolized the deeper frustration wrought by the myriad issues and the outrage felt by all as they prepared to surrender the vestiges of their homeland. But what followed the first day’s killings was a general outburst of the cultural angst that had fomented for years in the nontreaties’ psychology, producing a displaced anger and aggression that could not be stemmed. It erupted after the initial Salmon River attacks, helped push the interband leadership away from the conciliation of the past and toward unreserved opposition to what was happening to their people, and reappeared in random explosions over the next three months s the tribesmen tried to elude the army….” [p. 31-33.]

(Greene, Jerome A. (National Park Service historian). Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The US Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis. Montana Historical Society Press, 2001, pp. 13-14, 25, 28-33.)

Material from other Sources

McDermott. Named as fatalities are:

Lew Day (McDermott, John D. Forlorn Hope, 1978, p. 29)
Benjamin B. Norton (McDermott, John D. Forlorn Hope, 1978, p. 29)
John Chamberlin (McDermott, John D. Forlorn Hope, 1978, p. 32)
Hattie Chamberlin, 3-years-old. (McDermott, John D. Forlorn Hope, 1978, 32, 42)
Charles Horton (McDermott, John D. Forlorn Hope, 1978, p. 33)

(McDermott, John D. Forlorn Hope: The Nez Perce victory at White Bird Canyon. Caxton Press, 1978, pp. 32-42.)

Pardoe: Most of the murders were committed on June 14th. At least two of the attacks have received “massacre” names – the Salmon River Massacre and the Norton Massacre. The attacks and individuals named by Pardoe are:

At least one fatality near Cottonwood – “Last night we started a messenger to you, who reached Cottonwood House, where he was wounded and driven back by the Indians. The people of Cottonwood undertook to come here during the night; were interrupted, all wounded or killed.” (p. 52)
Mr. Norton at Mt. Idaho. (p. 52)
Seven, perhaps miners (not clear), at Salmon River, including Mr. Cleary. (p. 52)
John Devine,
Mr. Elpers,
Robert Bland,
Burn Beckrode. (p. 52)
Mrs. John J. Manuel and her infant at their cabin. (p. 53)
Mr. Benedict and August Bacon, in store at Mouth of White Bird Creek. (p. 53)
The two Cone Brothers, Mr. Osbourne, Francis Chodozo, and Mr. Mason. (p. 54)

Norton Massacre (only noting fatalities named):
Mr. Chamberlain and one of his sons, Mr. Norton, Mr. Day, and Mr. Moore. (p. 56)

(Pardoe. An Illustrated History of North Idaho. 1903, Sec. 16-18, pp. 52-58.)

Wikipedia, 10-12-2012 modification: “Tensions between Nez Perce and white settlers rose in 1876 and 1877. General Oliver Howard called a council in May 1877 and ordered the non-treaty bands to move to the reservation, setting an impossible deadline of 30 days. Howard humiliated the Nez Perce by jailing their old leader, Toohoolhoolzote, who spoke against moving to the reservation. The other Nez Perce leaders, including Chief Joseph, considered military resistance to be futile; they agreed to the move and reported as ordered to Fort Lapwai, Idaho. By June 14, 1877 about 600 Nez Perce from Joseph’s and White Bird’s bands had gathered at Camas prairie six miles west of present-day Grangeville, Idaho. That day, three warriors, outraged at past abuses, attacked nearby white settlers, killing four men who had wronged them. In a subsequent raid the next day, a war party of 20 Nez Perce killed between 12 and 14 additional settlers, including some women and children. ” (Wikipedia. “Nez Perce War.” 10-12-2012 modification.)

Wikipedia, 1-3-2023 edit: “….On June 13, shortly before the deadline for removing onto the reservation, White Bird’s band held a tel-lik-leen at the Tol Lake camp in which the warriors paraded on horseback in a circular movement around the village while individually boasting of their battle prowess and war deeds. According to Nez Perce accounts, an aged warrior named Hahkauts Ilpilp (Red Grizzly Bear) challenged the presence in the ceremony of several young participants whose relatives’ deaths at the hands of whites had gone unavenged. One named Wahlitits (Shore Crossing) was the son of Eagle Robe, who had been shot to death by Lawrence Ott three years earlier. Thus humiliated and apparently fortified with liquor, Shore Crossing and two of his cousins, Sarpsisilpilp (Red Moccasin Top) and Wetyemtmas Wahyakt (Swan Necklace), set out for the Salmon River settlements on a mission of revenge. On the following evening, June 14, 1877, Swan Necklace returned to the lake to announce that the trio had killed four white men and wounded another man. Inspired by the war furor, approximately sixteen more young men rode off to join Shore Crossing in raiding the settlements.” (Wikipedia. “Nez Perce War.” 1-3-2023.)

New York Times Newspaper:

June 22: “San Francisco, June 22. – A press dispatch from Boise City says: ‘By an arrival here last night the previous reports of an Indian outbreak near Salmon are substantially confirmed. The scene of the first massacre was on Salmon River and tributaries of that stream coming in from the northern side and draining the Camas Prairie and the neighboring mountains. The settlement called Camas Prairie covers the foot of the hills to the plain north of the Florence Mountains, and extends several miles northward into the plain which lies between the Florence Mountains and the breaking down of the table land called Craigs Mountain. Mount Idaho is about the centre of the range of settlements on the Camas Prairie, situated at the foot of the Florence Mountains, 65 miles from Lewiston. The Idaho settlements on Salmon River and its tributaries lie to the south and south-west of Mount Idaho at a distance varying from 15 to 30 miles. The Indians did not kill the women and children, but allowed them to be taken under escort of friendly squaws to State Creek, which had thus far been left undisturbed. At State Creek the whites have fortified themselves in a stockade fort, into which has been received the wives and children of the murdered men, together with the families of the men who escaped the massacre.

“‘Gathered in this place are the following persons: Mrs. Henry Eifers and two children (her husband was murdered at John Day’s Creek); Mr. Sherwood, wife, and grown daughter; Hiram Tilman, wife, and several children; Mrs. William Osborne and five children (her husband was murdered at Harry Mason’s on the Salmon River); the sister of Harry Mason, who was murdered in his home; Mrs. H. C. Brown, whose husband was murdered at his store on Salmon River; Mrs. J. J. Mannel and two children, whose husband was murdered at White Bird Post Office; John Woods; Charles Fards, wife, and four children; Mr. Cohen, wife, and several children; William Rhett, wife, and several children….

“‘Our informant says he is reliably informed that the Indians did not fire a single building or destroy any property, but cleared the country of stock, which they have driven to the south side of Salmon River. They seem to hope they will ultimately be undisturbed….” (New York Times. “The Indian Hostilities. The Salmon River Massacres.” 6-23-1877.)

Sources

Greene, Jerome A. (National Park Service historian). Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The US Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis. Montana Historical Society Press, 2001. Google preview accessed 1-15-2023 at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nez_Perce_Summer_1877/-Kx-EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Nez+Perce,+Summer+1877%3B+US+Army+and+the+Nee-me-poo+Crisis.&printsec=frontcover

McDermott, John D. Forlorn Hope: The Nez Perce victory at White Bird Canyon. Caxton Press, 1978. (Originally published as Forlorn Hope. The Battle of White Bird Canyon and the Beginning of the Nez Perce War, by the Idaho State Historical Society, Boise, Idaho, 1878.) Partially Google digitized. Accessed 10-14-2012 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=r5wO7aOMIikC&dq=%22norton+massacre%22&source=gbs_navlinks_s

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Nez Perce National Historical Park, ID, MT, OR, WA. “Tolo Lake during the Nez Perce Flight of 1877.” 12-29-2022 update. Accessed 1-15-2023 at: https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/tolo-lake-history.htm

New York Times. “The Indian Hostilities. The Salmon River Massacres.” 6-23-1877, p. 5. Accessed 1-17-2023 at: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F20C1FFE3A5E137B93C1AB178DD85F438784F9

Pardoe, Julia. An Illustrated History of North Idaho: Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, State of Idaho. Western Historical Publishing Co., 1903. At: http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/miss-julia-pardoe/an-illustrated-history-of-north-idaho–embracing-nez-perces-idaho-latah-koot-ewl/1-an-illustrated-history-of-north-idaho–embracing-nez-perces-idaho-latah-koot-ewl.shtml

Searl, Molly. Montana Disasters: Fires, Floods, and Other Catastrophes. Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing Co., 2001.

Wikipedia. “Nez Perce War.” 10-12-2012 modification. Accessed 10-14-2012 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nez_Perce_War

Wikipedia. “Nez Perce War.” 1-3-2023 edit. Accessed 1-15-2023 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nez_Perce_War