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The Nez Perce War was an armed conflict between several bands of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans and their allies, a small band of the ''Palouse'' tribe led by Red Echo (''Hahtalekin'') and Bald Head (''Husishusis Kute''), against the United States Army. The conflict, fought between June–October 1877, stemmed from the refusal of several bands of the Nez Perce, dubbed "non-treaty Indians", to give up their ancestral lands in the Pacific Northwest and move to an Indian reservation in Idaho. This forced removal was in violation of the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla, which granted the tribe 7.5 million acres in their ancestral lands and the right to hunt and fish in lands ceded to the government. After the first armed engagements in June, the Nez Perce embarked on an arduous trek north initially to seek help with the Crow tribe. After the Crows' refusal of aid, they sought sanctuary with the Lakota led by Sitting Bull, who had fled to Canada in May 1877 to avoid capture following the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn. The Nez Perce were pursued by elements of the U.S. Army with whom they fought a series of battles and skirmishes on a fighting retreat of 1,170 miles. The war ended after a final five-day battle fought alongside Snake Creek at the base of Montana's Bears Paw Mountains only 40 miles from the Canadian border. A majority of the surviving Nez Perce represented by Chief Joseph of the ''Wallowa'' band of Nez Perce, surrendered to Brigadier Generals Oliver Otis Howard and Nelson A. Miles.〔Forest Service: Nez Perce Historic National Trailhttp:()〕 White Bird, of the ''Lamátta'' band of Nez Perce, managed to elude the Army after the battle and escape with an undetermined number of his band to Sitting Bull's camp in Canada. The 418 Nez Perce who surrendered, including women and children, were taken prisoner and sent by train to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Although Chief Joseph is the most well known of the Nez Perce leaders, he was not the sole overall leader. The Nez Perce were led by a coalition of several leaders from the different bands who comprised the "non-treaty" Nez Perce, including the Wallowa Ollokot, White Bird of the ''Lamátta'' band, Toohoolhoolzote of the ''Pikunin'' band, and Looking Glass of the ''Alpowai'' band. Brigadier General Howard was head of the U.S. Army's Department of the Columbia, which was tasked with forcing the Nez Perce onto the reservation and whose jurisdiction was extended by General William Tecumseh Sherman to allow Howard's pursuit. It was at the final surrender of the Nez Perce when Chief Joseph gave his famous "I Will Fight No More Forever" speech, which was translated by the interpreter Arthur Chapman. The ''New York Times'' wrote in an 1877 editorial on the Nez Perce War that: "''On our part, the war was in its origin and motive nothing short of a gigantic blunder and a crime"''〔Robert G. Hays: ''A race at bay: New York times editorials on "the Indian problem," 1860-1900;'' p. 243: Southern Illinois University Press (1997) ISBN 0-8093-2067-3〕 The war is memorialized by a number of sites of the Nez Perce National Historical Park and the Nez Perce National Historic Trail. ==Background== In 1855, at the Walla Walla Council, the Nez Perce were coerced by the federal government into giving up their ancestral lands and moving to the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon Territory with the Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla tribes. The tribes involved were so bitterly opposed to the terms of the plan that Isaac I. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, and Joel Palmer, superintendent of Indian affairs for Oregon Territory, signed the Nez Perce Treaty in 1855, which granted the Nez Perce the right to remain in a large portion of their own lands in Idaho, Washington and Oregon territories, in exchange for relinquishing almost 5.5 million acres of their approximately 13 million acre homeland to the U.S. government for a nominal sum, with the caveat that they be able to hunt, fish and pasture their horses etc. on unoccupied areas of their former land -the same rights to use public lands as Anglo-American citizens of the territories.〔(Center for Columbia River History: Nez Perce Treaty, 1855 )〕 The newly established Nez Perce Indian reservation was in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington territories. Under the terms of the treaty, no white settlers were allowed on the reservation without the permission of the Nez Perce. However, in 1860 gold was discovered near present-day Pierce and 5,000 gold-seekers rushed onto the reservation, illegally founding the city of Lewiston as a supply depot on Nez Perce land.〔Hampton, Bruce. ''Children of Grace: The Nez Perce War of 1877.'' New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1994, pp 28-29〕 Ranchers and farmers followed the miners, and the U.S. government failed to keep settlers out of Indian lands. The Nez Perce were incensed at the failure of the U.S. government to uphold the treaties, and at settlers who squatted on their land and plowed up their camas prairies, which they depended on for subsistence. In 1863, a group of Nez Perce were coerced into signing away 90% of their reservation to the U.S., leaving only in Idaho Territory. Under the terms of the treaty, all Nez Perce were to move onto the new and much smaller reservation east of Lewiston. A large number of Nez Perce, however, did not accept the validity of the treaty, refused to move to the reservation, and remained on their traditional lands.〔Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. ''The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest.'' Boston: Mariner, 1997, p 428-429.〕 The Nez Perce who approved the treaty were mostly Christian; the opponents mostly followed the traditional religion. The "non-treaty" Nez Perce included the band of Chief Joseph, who lived in the Wallowa valley in northeastern Oregon. Disputes there with white farmers and ranchers led to the murders of several Nez Perce, and the murderers were never prosecuted.〔Hampton, pp. 32-36, 43〕 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.〔West, Elliott, pp. 14-15〕〔 Howard humiliated the Nez Perce by jailing their old leader, Toohoolhoolzote, who spoke against moving to the reservation.〔Josephy,Jr., Alvin M. ''The Nez Perce Indians the Opening of the Northwest,'' New Haven: Yale U Press, 1965, p. 504. Toohoolhoolzote shared a jail cell with an amiable but drunken soldier, Trumpeter John Jones. They two got along famously, but Jones, a few weeks later, became the first soldier killed in the Nez Perce War. McDermott, p. 60〕 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 Territory. By June 14, 1877 about 600 Nez Perce from Joseph's and White Bird's bands had gathered on the Camas Prairie, six miles (10 km) west of present-day Grangeville.〔West, Elliott, p. 5-6〕 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, June 14, 1877, Swan Necklace returned to the lake to announce that the trio had killed four white men (no women or children) and wounded another man who had previously treated the Indians badly. Inspired by the war furor, approximately sixteen more young men rode off to join Shore Crossing in raiding the settlements. Joseph and his brother Ollokot were away from the camp during the raids on June 14 and 15. When they arrived at the camp the next day, most of the Nez Perce had departed for a campsite on White Bird Creek to await the response of General Howard. Joseph considered an appeal for peace to the Whites, but realized it would be useless after the raids. Meanwhile, Howard mobilized his military force and sent out 130 men, including 13 friendly Nez Perce scouts, under the command of Captain David Perry to punish the Nez Perce and force them onto the reservation. Howard anticipated that his soldiers "will make short work of it."〔McDermott, John D. ''Forlorn Hope.'' Boise: Idaho State Historical Society, 1978, pp. 12, 54〕 The Nez Perce defeated Perry at the Battle of White Bird Canyon and began their long flight eastward to escape from the U.S. soldiers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nez Perce War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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