the mountains and down the Columbia. While at the cantonment of Tongue River, July 17, he addressed a letter to the Hon. George W. McCrary, Secretary of War, at Washington, D. C., in which he used the following language:

"I now regard the Sioux Indian problém, as a war question, as solved by the operations of General Miles last winter, and by the establishment of the two new posts on the Yellowstone, now assured this summer. Boats come and go now, where a year ago none would venture except with strong guards. Wood-yards are being established to facilitate navigation, and the great mass of the hostiles have been forced to go to the agencies for food and protection, or have fled across the border into British Territory. "

The following appeared in the annual report of Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan:

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,

CHICAGO, ILLS., OCTOBER 25, 1877. (

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit, for the information of the General of the Army, the following brief report of events occurring within the Military Division of the Missouri since the 25th of November, 1876, the date of my last annual report.

During the months of December and January the hostile Indians were constantly harassed by the troops under Col. N. A. Miles, Fifth Infantry, whose headquarters were at the mouth of the Tongue River, and who had two sharp engagements with them, one at Redwater and the other near Hanging Woman's Fork, inflicting heavy losses in men, supplies and animals.

This constant pounding and ceaseless activity upon the part of our troops (Colonel Miles in particular), in midwinter, began to tell, and early in February, 1877, information was communicated which led me to believe that the Indians in general were tired of the war, and that the large bodies heretofore in the field were beginning to break up. On the 25th of that month 229 lodges of Minneconjoux and Sans Arcs came and surrendered to the troops at Cheyenne agency, Dak. They were completely disarmed, their horses taken from them, and they were put under guard, and this system was carried out with all who afterward came in to surrender within the Departments of Dakota and the Platte. From the 1st of March to the 21st of the same month over 2,200 Indians, in detachments of from 30 to 900, came in and surrendered at Camps Sheridan and Robinson, in the Department of the Platte, and on the 22nd of April, 303 Cheyennes came and surrendered to Colonel Miles at the cantonment on Tongue River in the Department of Dakota, and more were reported on the way in to give themselves up. Finally on the 6th of May, Crazy Horse, with 889 of his people and 2,000 ponies, came in to Camp Robinson and surrendered to General Crook in person.

In the meantime, Colonel Miles having had information of the whereabouts of Lame Deer's band of hostile Sioux surprised his camp, killing 14 warriors, including Lame Deer and Iron Star, the two principal chiefs, capturing 450 ponies and destroying 51 lodges and their contents. I may mention here that this band commenced to surrender, in small squads from two to twenty, immediately thereafter, until at length, on the 10th of September, the last of the band, numbering 224, constantly followed and pressed by troops

from the command of Colonel Miles, surrendered at Camp Sheridan. The Sioux war was

After being separated from my family for nearly one year, as the country became safe, one of the first steamboats to come up the river, in June, 1877, brought my wife and her sister, Miss Elizabeth Sherman, now Mrs. J. D. Cameron, and our little daughter, Cecilia. They were the first white women to come and make their permanent abode in that wild western country. We could only afford them a soldier's welcome, as we were living in tents and in the cantonment bivouac. They accepted the situation very cheerfully, however. The outdoor exercises which they were able to enjoy, such as horseback-riding, hunting and sailing on the Yellowstone, together with the novelty of their new life, made it a pleasure and a romance. As other steamboats came up the river they brought the families and relatives of the officers and some of the soldiers, and this was the beginning of civilized and domestic life in that vicinity. The presence of women added a charm and a ray of sunshine to the life of the soldier.

(257)

THE CRAZY HORSE FIGHT.-SEE PAGE 237.

CHAPTER XX.

THE NEZ PERCÉ CAMPAIGN

CHARACTER OF THE NEZ PERCES-THE WALLOWA VALLEY-CHIEF JOSEPH - HOW THE WAR WAS BEGUN HOWARD AND GIBBON'S CAMPAIGNS PREPARATIONS FOR THE MOVEMENT

THE TROOPS DETAILED-THE INDIAN ALLIES-BRINGING A STEAMER

HILE these operations were being carried on, information was received through unofficial reports and newspaper accounts of threatened hostilities on the part of the Nez Percé Indians in Idaho.

These Indians had lived from time immemorial in Idaho; and up to that time it had been their boast that no Nez Percé had ever taken the life of a white man, though it could not be said that no white man had ever killed a Nez Percé. From our first acquaintance with them through the expedition of Lewis and Clark, they had been exceedingly friendly to white explorers and settlers, yet the old story of a desire on the part of the white people to occupy Indian land caused the serious trouble that occurred during that year, followed by the usual result. They were occupants of the Wallowa Valley. By treaty this land had been given to them as a part of their reservation, and they were opposed to the surrender of it. They were in comfortable circumstances, having herds of cattle and plenty of horses. A determined effort was made by interested whites to make them surrender the contested ground, and the prominent chiefs, including Looking Glass and Chief Joseph, opposed it.

Chief Joseph told me afterward that his father, before his death, called him to his bedside and counseled him never to sign a treaty giving up the Wallowa Valley. Faithful to the dying injunction of his father he never did consent to part with that bit of territory, but the whites were determined to occupy it and they had enough influence at Washington to have a commission sent to demand the surrender of this territory, and, when that was not complied with, to have a body of troops sent to remove the