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Wars and Battles of Idaho and the West

This page includes a variety of sources including books, articles, and web pages. An attempt has been made to include major works and identify primary sources.

Montana – the Nez Percé War – incidents in the defeat and capture of Chief Joseph by General Nelson A. Miles General Miles charging the Indian camp – the dash into the ravine / from sketches by G.M. Holland. Montana, 1877. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/96516447.

Records

Tribal Histories

For additional materials online, please take a look at our list of Digital Archives.

Survivers [sic] of the Indian Wars call the White House. , 1927. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/94508181.

U.S. Government Publications

Miscellaneous

  • Arnold, Royal Ross. Indian Wars of Idaho… Caldwell, Id: The Caxton printers, ltd., 1932.
  • Bennett, T.W., Governor of Idaho. “The Indian Policy of Governor Bennett.” The Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman. October 20, 1874, page 2.
  • Brady, Cyrus Townsend. Northwestern Fights and Fighters. Garden City: Doubleday, 1907.
  • Buffalo Bill. The life of Hon. William F. Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, the famous hunter, scout and guide; an autobiography. New York: Indian Head Books, 1991.
  • Condition of the Indian Tribes: report of the Joint Special Committee, appointed under joint resolution of March 3, 1865: with an appendix. United States. Congress. Joint Special Committee. Government Printing Office, 1867. (S. Rep. No. 156, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1867)). https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/indianserialset/1747/.
  • Dodge, Colonel Richard Irving. Our wild Indians; thirty-three years’ personal experience among the red men of the great West. A popular account of their social life, religion, habits, traits, customs, exploits, etc. With thrilling adventures and experiences on the great plains and in the mountains of our wide frontier. Hartford: A.D. Worthington and company; Chicago : A.G. Nettleton & co. : [etc., etc.], 1883.
  • Downey, Fairfax Davis. Indian Wars of the U.S. Army, 1776-1865. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963.
  • Dunn, Jacob Piatt. Massacres of the Mountains; a history of the Indian wars of the Far West. New York, 1886. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1886.
  • Farrow, Edward S. Mountain Scouting: a hand-book for officers and soldiers on the frontiers: profusely illustrated and containing numerous notes on the art of travel. New York: E.S. Farrow, 1881. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100256025.
  • Gibbon, John. Adventures on the Western Frontier. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
  • Glassley, Ray Hoard. Indian Wars of the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Or.: Binfords & Mort, 1972.
  • Glassley, Ray Hoard. Pacific Northwest Indian Wars: The Cayuse War of 1848, the Rogue River wars of the ’50s, the Yakima War, 1853-56, the Coeur d’Alene War, 1857, the Modoc War, 1873, the Nez Percé War, 1877, the Bannock War, 1878, the Sheepeater’s War of 1879. Portland, Or.: Binfords & Mort, 1953.
  • Great Western Indian Fights. Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1966, c.1960.
  • Haines, Francis. Indians of the Great Basin and Plateau. New York: Putnam, 1970.
  • Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca. Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims.  Boston, For sale by Cupples, Upham & co., G. P. Putnam’s sons, New York, and by the author, 1883. https://archive.org/details/lifeamongpiutes00manngoog.
  • Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca. Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1994.
  • Hunt, Garrett B. Indian Wars of the Inland Empire. Spokane: Spokane Community College Library, [1958?].
  • Hyde, Dayton O. The Last Free Man: The True Story Behind the Massacre of Shoshone Mike and His Band of Indians in 1911.
  • Jackson, Helen Hunt. A Century of Dishonor: a sketch of the United States government’s dealings with some of the Indian tribes. Williamstown, Mass.: Corner House, 1979 [©1881].
  • Jackson, Helen Hunt. A Century of Dishonor: a Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings With Some of the Indian Tribes. New ed., enl. by the addition of the report of the needs of the Mission Indians of California. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1885. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011528924/Home.
  • Jackson, Helen Hunt. A century of dishonor; the early crusade for Indian reform. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1978.
  • Josephy, Alvin M. The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Leadership. New York: Viking Press, 1961.
  • Kelker, O. A. (Gus), compiler. Indian Battles of Idaho (1860-1863).
  • Manring, Benjamin Franklin. The Conquest of the Coeur D’Alenes, Spokanes and Palouses. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1975.
  • Manring, Benjamin Frankline. Conquest of the Coeur d’Alenes, Spokanes & Palouses. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1975.
  • Manypenny, George W. Our Indian Wards. Cincinnati: R. Clarke, 1880. https://archive.org/details/cu31924088025014.
  • Manypenny, George W. Our Indian Wards. New York: Da Capo Press, 1972, 1880.
  • Miles, Nelson A. “Personal recollections and observations of General Nelson A. Miles, embracing a brief view of the Civil War, or, From New England to the Golden Gate and the story of his Indian campaigns with comments on the exploration, development, and progress of our great western empire.” Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1992.
  • Rickey, Don. Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay: The Enlisted Soldier Fighting the Indian Wars. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
  • Shannon, Donald H. Massacre Rocks and City of Rocks. Snake Country Series vol.3. Caldwell, Idaho: Snake Country Pub., 2008.
  • Shannon, Donald H. The Boise Massacre on the Oregon Trail. Snake Country Series vol.1. Caldwell, Idaho: Snake Country Pub., 2004.
  • Shannon, Donald H. The Utter disaster on the Oregon Trail: the Utter and Van Ornum Massacres of 1860. Snake Country Series vol.2. Caldwell, Idaho: Snake Country Pub.; Boise, ID: Distributed by Tamarack Books, 1993.
  • Stensland, Anna Lee. Literature by and about the American Indian; an annotated bibliography for junior and senior high school students. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers ofEnglish
  • Stewart, Omer C. Indians of the Great Basin: A Critical Bibliography. Bloomington: Published for the Newberry Library [by] Indiana University Press, 1982.
  • Varley, James F. Brigham and the Brigadier: General Patrick Connor and his California Volunteers in Utah and along the Overland Trail. Tucson, Ariz.: Westernlore Press, 1989.
  • Webber, Bert. Oregon Trail emigrant massacre of 1862, and Port-Neuf Muzzle Loaders rendezvous, Massacre Rocks, Idaho. Medford, Or.: Webb Research Group, 1987.
  • Wellman, Paul I. (Paul Iselin). Death in the Desert: the fifty years’ war for the great Southwest. New York: The Macmillan company, 1935.
  • Wellman, Paul I. (Paul Iselin). Death on the Prairie; the thirty years’ struggle for the western plains. 1898-1966. New York: The Macmillan company, 1934.
  • Yellowstone National Park: A Bibliography National Park Service. [Place of publication not identified]: United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1940.

Also, see our bibliographies on Western Expansion, and the Oregon Trail.

Adam-Onís Treaty of 1819

  • Treaty of Amity, Settlement, and Limits Between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty. 1819. Avalon Project. Lillian Goldman Law Library. Yale Law School. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1819.asp. Accessed August 24, 2018.

John Caldwell Calhoun, Secretary of War from 1817 to 1825. Painting: Oil on canvas painting by Charles Bird King, 1823. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.65.58.

Bureau of Indian Affairs established as part of the War Department – 1824

Indian Removal Act – 1830

Battle at Peirre’s Hole (Rocky Mountain Rendezvous) – 1832

  • Hardee, Jim. Pierre’s Hole! the fur trade history of Teton Valley, Idaho. Museum of the Mountain Man, Sublette County Historical Society, 2010.

Also, take a look at our Fur Trade bibliography!

Cayuse War – 1845 to 1850

  • Bagley, Clarence B. The Cayuse: our first Indian war in The Northwest. Washington Historical Quarterly, 1906.
  • Sager, Catherine, and Matilda Sager. The Whitman Massacre of 1847. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1986.
  • Sager, Matilda. A Survivor’s Recollections of the Whitman Massacre. Spokane, Wash.: Sponsored by Esther Reed Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, [1920],
  • Saunders, E. M. The Whitman Massacre: A True Story by a Survivor of this Terrible Tragedy Which Took Place in Oregon in 1847. Fairfield, Wash.: Galleon Press, 1977.
  • Jackson, John C. A little war of Destiny: the First Regiment of Oregon Mounted Volunteers and the Yakima Indian War of 1855-56. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1996.

Clarke Massacre – August 1851

  • Ontko, Gale. Thunder Over the Ochoco: The Gathering Storm, Volume I. Seven Locks Press: Santa Ana, CA, pages 5–17.
  • Americus Savage’s Journal. The Oregon Territory and Its Pioneers. http://www.oregonpioneers.com/savage.htm. Accessed September 12, 2018.

Treaty of Hellgate – July 16, 1855

Yakima War – 1855 to 1856

  • Glassley, Ray Hoard. Pacific Northwest Indian Wars: The Cayuse War of 1848, the Rogue River wars of the ’50s, the Yakima War, 1853-56, the Coeur d’Alene War, 1857, the Modoc War, 1873, the Nez Percé War, 1877, the Bannock War, 1878, the Sheepeater’s War of 1879. Portland, Or.: Binfords & Mort, 1953.
  • Jackson, John C. A little war of destiny: the First Regiment of Oregon Mounted Volunteers and the Yakima Indian War of 1855-56. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1996.
  • Miles, Jo N. Kamiakin country: Washington Territory in turmoil, 1855-1858. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press, 2016.
  • Trafzer, Clifford E., and Richard D. Scheuerman. The Snake River-Palouse and the Invasion of the Inland Northwest. Pullman, Washington: (WSU Press) Washington State University Press, 2016.
  • Message of the governor of Washington Territory. Also; the correspondence with the secretary of war, Major Gen. Wool, the officers of the regular army, and of the volunteer service of Washington Territory. Olympia: Edward Furste, Public Printer, 1857. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/09032153/. Accessed November 29, 2018.

Rogue River Indian War – 1855 to 1856

  • Walsh, Frank K. Indian battles along the Rogue River, 1855-56: one of America’s wild and scenic rivers. [Grants Pass, Or.]: Te-Cum-Tom Publications, 1972.
  • Drew, Charles S. Communication from C.S. Drew, late Adjutant of the Second Regiment of Oregon Mounted Volunteers, Giving an Account of the Origin and Early Prosecution of the Indian War in Oregon. [Washington], [1860]. https://digital.osl.state.or.us/islandora/object/osl:79809.

Coeur d’Aene War / Palouse War / Battle of Pine Creek / Battle of Tohotonimme / Battle of Hngossemen  – May 17 and 18, 1858

  • Trafzer, Clifford E., and Richard D. Scheuerman. The Snake River-Palouse and the Invasion of the Inland Northwest. Pullman, Washington: (WSU Press) Washington State University Press, 2016.
  • Scott, Lea Anne. The Steptoe Defeat, 1858. Spokane Historical (Public History, Eastern Washington University). http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/235. Accessed August 21, 2018.
  • Manring, Benjamin Frankline. Conquest of the Coeur d’Alenes, Spokanes & Palouses. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1975.

Horse-slaughter camp on the Spokane River, 8th, 9th, 10th Sept. ; nine hundred horses here captured and shot. Idaho Spokane River Washington, 1858. September. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2009631466.

Battle of Four Lakes / Battle of Spokane Plains / Horse Slaughter Camp – 8th, 9th, and 10th of September, 1858

  • “Col. Wright’s horse slaughter camp.” The Spokesman Review. Wednesday, June 5, 2013. http://www.spokesman.com/then-and-now/col-wrights-horse-slaughter-camp/
  • Horse-slaughter camp on the Spokane River, 8th, 9th, 10th Sept. 1858; nine hundred horses here captured and shot. Salted paper print. https://www.loc.gov/item/2009631466/
  • “Report of the Secretary of War, Communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, a copy of the topographical memoir and map of Colonel Wright’s late campaign against the Indians in Oregon and Washington Territories. 35th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1859)

Pyramid Lake War / Washoe War / Paiute War / Pah Ute War – 1860

  • Egan, Ferol. Sand in a Whirlwind: the Paiute Indian War of 1860. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972.
  • History of Nevada 1881. Ed. Myron Angel. Oakland, CA: Thompson and West, 1881.
  • Pyramid Lake War. Online Nevada Encyclopedia, Nevada Humanities. Archived 7 Jan 2014 – 18 Nov 2021.
  • Sally Zanjani. Devils Will Reign: How Nevada Began. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2006.

General Patrick E. Connor. United States. [Between 1860 and 1870] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018669198.

Bear River Massacre / Massacre at Boa Ogoi – Winter of 1862/1863

  • Crawford, Aaron L., “The People of Bear Hunter Speak: Oral Histories of the Cache Valley Shoshones Regarding the Bear River Massacre” (2007). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 1998. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1998B. Accessed August 23, 2018.
  • arta, Edward J. Battle Creek: the Battle of Bear River. Pocatello, ID: The author/Idaho State University, 1962.
  • Boa Ogoi Cultural & Interpretive Center. https://boaogoi.org/. Accessed August 23, 2018.
  • Christensen, Scott R. Sagwitch: Shoshone chieftain, Mormon elder, 1822-1887. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1999.
  • Fleisher, Kass. The Bear River Massacre and the Making of History. Albany: State University of New York, 2004.
  • Hart, Newell. The Bear River Massacre: being a complete sourcebook and storybook of the genocidal action against the Shoshones in 1863 and of Gen. P.E. Connor and how he related and dealt with Indians and Mormons on the Western Frontier. Preston, Idaho: Cache Valley Newsletter Pub. Co., 1982.
  • Madsen, Brigham D. Chief Pocatello: The White Plume. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1986.
  • Madsen, Brigham D. Glory hunter: a biography of Patrick Edward Connor. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990.
  • Madsen, Brigham D. The Shoshoni frontier and the Bear River massacre. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1985.
  • Miller, Rod. Massacre at Bear River: first, worst, forgotten. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press, 2008.
  • Navarro, Meghan A. The Battle of Bear River. The post office in Preston, Idaho features a mural painted in 1941 by artist Edmond J. Fitzgerald. This article from the Smithsonian National Postal museum analyses the mural. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/indians-at-the-post-office-murals-conflict/the-battle-of-bear-river. Accessed October 25, 2022.
  • Ottogary, Willie, edited by Matthew E. Kreitzer, foreword by Barre Toelken. The Washakie letters of Willie Ottogary, northwestern Shoshone journalist and leader, 1906-1929. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2000.
  • Parry, Darren. Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History. Salt Lake City, Utah: By Common Consent Press, 2019.
  • Parry, Mae Timbimboo, and Michelle Welch. Massacre at Baga Oi. Utah Valley University Library. Sound and Text. 2006-05-02. Mountain West Digital Library. https://dp.la/item/ce520ae3aac240bee39a657bc7df2159. Accessed August 23, 2018.
  • Schindler, Harold. “The Bear River Massacre: New Historical Evidence.” Utah Historical Quarterly. Volume 67, Number 4, Fall 1999. https://heritage.utah.gov/history/quarterly
  • “Report of Col. P. Edward Connor. Third California Infantry, commanding District of Utah.” The War of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1897, 185.

Massacre at Sand Creek – November 29, 1864

  • Condition of the Indian Tribes: report of the Joint Special Committee, appointed under joint resolution of March 3, 1865: with an appendix. United States. Congress. Joint Special Committee. Government Printing Office, 1867. (S. Rep. No. 156, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1867)). https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/indianserialset/1747/.

Idaho Territory – March 4, 1864

Treaty with the Klamath – 1864

  • Treaty with the Klamath, etc., 1864. Indian Affairs: Laws and treaties. Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington, Govt. Print. Office, 1904-41. New York, AMS Press, 1971-1972. Pages 865-868.
  • Treaty of 1864. The Klamath Tribes (Klamath-Modoc-Tahooskin). http://klamathtribes.org/treaty-of-1864/. Accessed September 12, 2018.

Snake War – 1864 to 1868

  • Bancroft, Hubert Howe, and Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett Victor. History of Oregon, Vol. II. 1848-1888, The History Company, San Francisco, 1888. Chapters XX Military Organization and Operations 1861-1865 and XXI: The Shoshone Wars 1866-1868, pp. 488–654. Available on Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=1hcPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA488&lpg=#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed August 22, 2018.
  • Bolen, Robert. War Chief Paulina and His Renegade Band of Paiutes. Nampa, Id: Fort Boise Publishing Company, 2014.
  • Geary, Edward R. Depredations and Massacre by the Snake River Indians. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1966.
  • Hill, William E. The Oregon Trail, Yesterday and Today: a brief history and pictorial journey along the wagon tracks of pioneers. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1986.
  • Hook, Jason, and Martin Pegler, To Live and Die in the West: The American Indian Wars, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001.
  • Michno, Gregory. The Deadliest Indian War in the West: The Snake Conflict, 1864-1868. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press, 2007.
  • Wooster, Robert. The Military and United States Indian Policy 1865-1903. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

Marias Massacre (Baker Massacre) – January 23, 1870

  • Carol Murray tells the story of the Baker Massacre. Blackfoot Digital Library. Kainai Studies Archives, Red Crow College, P.O. Box 1258 Cardston, AB T0K 0K0, Canada. https://www.blackfootdigitallibrary.com/digital/collection/bdl/id/234/rec/3. Accessed August 2, 2021.
  • Fifer, Barbara. Montana battlefields, 1806-1877 : Native Americans and the U.S. Army at war. Helena, Montana: Farcountry Press, 2005.
  • Graybill, Andrew R. The red and the white : a family saga of the American West. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2013, First edition.
  • Henderson, Rodger C. “The Piikuni and the U.S. Army’s Piegan Expedition: Competing Narratives of the 1870 Massacre on the Marias River”. Montana The Magazine of Western History. Spring 2018.
  • Mabie, Nora. “A story of genocide, survival and resilience: Blackfeet Nation remembers Baker Massacre.” Great Falls Tribune. 6:00 AM January 16, 2020. Updated 11:55 AM January 17, 2020. https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2020/01/16/montana-blackfeet-nation-tribe-baker-massacre-150th-anniversary/4434910002/. Accessed June 22, 2021.
  • “Soldiers Massacre the Wrong Camp of Indians.” History.com. November 16, 2006. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soldiers-massacre-the-wrong-camp-of-indians.
  • Strahn, Derek. “The Baker Massacre (Told by Bear Head, a Survivor, circa 1935)”(PDF). Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870. Montana Historical Society. https://mhs.mt.gov/education/Textbook/Chapter7/IEFA-Lesson-Plans-Blood-on-Marias.pdf. Accessed August 2, 2021.

Heller, Louis, photographer. Winema or Tobey Riddle and son–Celebrated Modoc Indian who saved Col. Meacham’s life in 1873. , ca. 1873. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/95510423.

Modoc War – 1872 to 1873

  • Payne, Doris Palmer. Captain Jack, Modoc renegade. Portland, Oregon: Binford & Mort, 1938.
  • Wellman, Paul I. Death in the Desert : the fifty years’ war for the great Southwest. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1987. Reprint. Originally published: New York: Macmillan, 1935.
  • Quinn, Arthur. Hell with the fire out : a history of the Modoc War. Winchester, Mass. : Faber & Faber, 1997.
  • Clinton, Peters De Witt. Kit Carson’s life and adventures. Hartford, Conn.: Dustin, Gilman & Co.; Cincinnati : Queen City Pub. Co., 1873.
  • Riddle, Jeff C. The Indian history of the Modoc war and the causes that led to it. Klamath Falls, Oregon: D. L. Moses, 1914.
  • Hamilton, W. T. (William Thomas). My sixty years on the plains: trapping, trading, and Indian fighting. New York: Forest and Stream Pub. Co., 1905.
Major General George Armstrong Custer. United States, 1865. [May] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018667359.

Battle of the Little Big Horn – 1876

  • Brininstool, E.A. A Trooper with Custer and Other Historic Incidents of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Columbus, O.: Hunter-Trader-Trapper Co., 1925.
  • Koury, Michael J., and Ernest Lisle Reedstrom. Diaries of the Little Big Horn. [Bellevue, Neb.]: Old Army Press, 1968.
  • Hardoff, Richard G. Hokahey! A Good Day to Die! Indian Casualties of the Custer Fight. Spokane, Wash.: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1993.
  • Kicking Bear. “Battle of the Little Big Horn.” Watercolor on muslin. Southwest Museum of the American Indian Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, 1896. http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=M49018;type=101. Accessed September 4, 2018.
  • Brown, W.C. and Charles King. Map showing many battlefields of the Indian Wars; and Trail of the Big Horn and Yellowstone expedition of 1876. Clason Map Co. Denver, Colo. : Clason Map Co., [date of publication not identified].
  • McClernand, Edward J. On time for disaster: the rescue of Custer’s command: including an account of the Sioux Expedition of 1876 and the rescue of the remnant of Custer’s command at the Little Big Horn: and with the “Journal of marches under Colonel John Gibbon, April 1 to September 29, 1876”. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. Reprint. Originally published: With the Indian and the buffalo in Montana, 1870-1878. Glendale, Calif.: A.H. Clark, 1969.

Powder River Campaign – 1876

  • Hafen, Le Roy Reuben. Powder River Campaigns and Sawyers Expedition of 1865. Glendale, Calif.: A. H. Clark Co., 1961.

Caption identifies sitters as Eagle of Light, Nez Percé; Joseph, Nez Percé; and (Smohollah). However, Bill Gulick in Chief Joseph Country: Land of the Nez Percé, 1981, identifies sitters in this image as Billy Carter, Ollokot (Chief Joseph’s brother) and Middle Bear. photograph by Chas. W. Phillips, Walla Walla. , ca. 1877. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/00650888.

Nez Percé War – 1877

  • U.S. Forest Service. Nez Perce National Historic Trail bibliography. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/npnht/learningcenter/parents-teachers/?cid=fsbdev3_055667. Accessed August 23, 2018.
  • Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1877. H.R. Exec. Doc. No. 1, 45th Cong., 2nd Sess. (1877) https://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/indianserialset/5672/. Accessed August 23, 2018.
  • “Claims of the Nez Perce Indians.” 56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Executive Document, No. 257. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1900.
  • Baird, Dennis, editor, authors Chief Lawyer, Governor Caleb Lyon, General Benjamin Alvord, and Indian Agent James O’Neill. Reports on the Aftermath of the 1863 Nez Percé Treaty. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Library, 1999.
  • Chittenden, General Hiram Martin. The Yellowstone National Park. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979. Originally published in 1964.
  • Crawford, Mary Mazeppa. Nez Percés Since Spalding: Experiences of Forty-One Years at Lapwai, Idaho. [Berkeley, Calif.]: [The Professional Press], 1936.
  • Stadius, Martin. Dreamers: On the Trail of the Nez Percé. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press, 1999.
  • Drury, Clifford Merrill. Chief Lawyer of the Nez Percé Indians. Glendale, Calif.: A. H. Clark Co., 1979.
  • Drury, Clifford Merrill. I, the Lawyer, Head Chief of the Nez Percé. New York: The Westerners, 1960.
  • Ege, Robert J. After the Little Bighorn: Battle of Snake Creek, Montana Territory, September 30 to October 5, 1877: the Last Battle of the Nez Percé and the Surrender of Chief Joseph. Greeley, Colo.: Werner Publications, 1982.
  • Fee, Chester Anders. Chief Joseph; the biography of a great Indian. New York : Wilson Erickson, 1936.
  • Haines, Aubrey L. An Elusive Victory: The Battle of the Big Hole. West Glacier, Mont.: Glacier Natural History Association, 1991.
  • Haines, Francis. Red Eagles of the Northwest: The Story of Chief Joseph and His People.
  • Hampton, Bruce. Children of Grace: the Nez Percé War of 1877.
  • Hathaway, Ella C. Battle of the Big Hole in August 1877 as told by T.C. Sherrill a Volunteer Member of General Gibbon’s Command which was so nearly wiped out on that occasion.
  • Howard, Helen Addison. Maps and illus. by George D. McGrath. Saga of Chief Joseph. Caldwell, Idaho : Caxton Printers, 1965.
  • Howard, Helen Addison, assisted in the research by Dan L. McGrath; maps and illustrations by George D. McGrath. War chief Joseph. Caldwell, Id : The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1941.
  • Howard, O. O. My Life and Experiences Among Our Hostile Indians: A Record of Personal Observations, Adventures and Campaigns Among the Indians of the Great West…
  • Howard, O. O. Nez Percé Joseph, An Account of his Ancestors, his Lands, his Confederates, his Enemies, his Murders, his War, his Pursuit and Capture. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1881.
  • Sutherland, Thomas A. Howard’s campaign against the Nez Perce Indians, 1877. Seattle: Shorey Book Store, 1967.
  • Idaho State Historical Society Reference Series https://history.idaho.gov/reference-series/. Accessed September 14, 2018.
  • Janetski, Joel C. Indians in Yellowstone National Park. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 2002.
Chief Joseph, Ca. 1840 to 1904. , ca. 1903. May 28. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003653736.
  • Joseph, Nez Percé Chief. Chief Joseph’s Own Story: As Told by Chief Joseph in 1879. Billings: Montana Indian Publications, 1972.
  • Joseph, Nez Percé Chief. That All People May Be One People: Send Rain to Wash the Face of the Earth. Sitka, AK: Mountain Meadow Press, 1995.
  • Josephy, Alvin M. The Nez Percé Indians and the Opening of the Northwest. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
  • Laughy, Linwood, compiler. In Pursuit of the Nez Perces : the Nez Perce War of 1877, as reported by O.O. Howard, Duncan McDonald, Chief. Wrangell, AK: Mountain Meadow Press, 1993.
  • Lavender, David Sievert. Let Me Be Free: The Nez Percé Tragedy.
  • McBeth, Kate C. The Nez Percés Since Lewis and Clark. New York; Chicago: F. H. Revell company, 1908.
  • McDermott, John Dishon. Forlorn Hope: the Battle of White Bird Canyon and the Beginning of the Nez Percé War. Boise: Idaho State Historical Society, 1978.
  • McWhorter, Lucullus Virgil. Hear Me My Chiefs! Nez Percé History and Legend. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1952.
  • Moeller, Bill. Chief Joseph and the Nez Percés: A Photographic History. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Pub., 1995.
  • Chalfant, Stuart A. and Verne F. (Verne Frederick) Ray. Nez Percé Indians: Aboriginal Territory of the Nez Percé Indians. New York: Garland Pub. Inc., 1974. INCLUDES: Chalfant, Stuart A. Aboriginal territory of the Nez Perce Indians. 1974. Ray, Verne F. (Verne Frederick), 1905-2003. Ethnohistory of the Joseph Band of Nez Perce Indians: 1805-1905. 1974. United States. Indian Claims Commission. S. A. Chalfant’s report: Indian Claims Commission docket no. 175; V. F. Ray’s report: Indian Claims Commission docket no. 186.
  • Greene, Jerome A. Nez Percé Summer, 1877: The U.S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis. Helena, Mont.: Montana Historical Society Press, 2000.
  • Painter, Bob. White Bird: the last great warrior chief of the Nez Perces. Fairfield, Wash. : Ye Galleon Press, 2002.
  • Place, Marian T. (Marian Templeton). Retreat to the Bear Paw, the Story of the Nez Percé. New York: Four Winds Press, 1969.
  • Shields, G.O. (“Coquina”). The Battle of the Big Hole: a history of General Gibbon’s engagement with Nez Perces Indians in the Big Hole Valley, Montana, August 9th, 1877. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1889.
  • The Soldiers’ Side of the Nez Perce War: eyewitness accounts of “The most extraordinary of Indian Wars.” 1st Bear Creek Press ed. Wallowa, Or.: Bear Creek Press, 2003.
  • Smith, Donna K., editor. “The treaty of 1855 has not been lived up to, and we have no faith that this will be lived up to”: the 1867 Nez Perce Treaty Council. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Library, 2001.
Yellow Wolf, Nez Percé warrior, half-length portrait, facing left. , ca. 1909. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/91481172.
  • Sutherland, Thomas A. Howard’s Campaign Against the Nez Percé Indians, 1878. Seattle: Shorey Book Store, 1967.
  • Tchakmakian, Pascal. The Great Retreat: The Nez Percés War in Words and Pictures. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1976.
  • Thompson, Scott M. I Will Tell of my War Story: A Pictorial Account of the Nez Percé War. Seattle, Wash.: University of Washington Press, 2000.
  • Trafzer, Clifford E. Chief Joseph’s Allies. Newcastle, CA: Sierra Oaks Pub. Co., 1992.
  • Painter, Bob. White Bird: the Last Great Warrior Chief of the Nez Percés. Fairfield, Wash. : Ye Galleon Press, 2002.
  • Yellow Wolf, and Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, editor. Yellow Wolf: His Own Story. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton, 1940.
    Zimmer, William Frederick. Frontier Soldier: An Enlisted Man’s Journal of the Sioux and Nez Percé Campaigns, 1877.
  • Oklahoma Historical Society. Nez Percé in Oklahoma. The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=NE015. Accessed September 14, 2018.

Gen. O.O. Howard. United States. [Between 1860 and 1865] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018667240.

Bannock War –  1878

  • Albright, Syd. “Bannock War of Shattered Dreams and Broken Promises” (History Corner). Coeur d’Alene/Post Falls Press. 5:00 am April 19, 2015. http://www.cdapress.com/archive/article-884eeb99-3f40-5a41-bf6d-4ab2dcfaa3c4.html. Accessed September 14, 2018.
  • Allen, William Alonzo. The Sheep-Eaters. Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1989?
  • Brimlow, George Francis. The Bannock Indian war of 1878. Caldwell, Id: Caxton Printers, 1938.
  • Carrey, John. A Guide to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and the Sheepeater War. Riggins, Idaho: Backeddy Books, 1977.
  • Carrey, John. The Middle Fork & the Sheepeater War. Cambridge, Idaho: Backeddy Books, 1980.
  • Corbett, Christopher. Orphans Preferred: the twisted truth and lasting legend of the Pony Express. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.
  • Farrow, Edward S. Extracts from the Military Records of Edward S. Farrow. [Place of publication not identified]: [publisher not identified], 19–?
  • Gibson, Benson. Survivors of the Bannock War. Owyhee, Nev. (Box 27, Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Owyhee 89832): Benson Gibson, 1991?
  • Heaton, John W. The Shoshone-Bannocks: culture & commerce at Fort Hall, 1870-1940. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
  • Janetski, Joel C. The Indians of Yellowstone Park. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987.
  • Laidlaw, Sally Jean. Federal Indian Land Policy and the Fort Hall Indians. Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho State College, 1960.
  • Lohse, E.S., and Richard N. Holmer, editors. Fort Hall and the Shoshone-Bannock. Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho State University Press, 1990.
  • Madsen, Brigham D. The Bannock of Idaho. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1996.
  • Miles, Nelson Appleton. “Brush with the Bannocks.” North American Review; September 1895, Vol. 161, p346-351.
  • Sheepeater Indian campaign, Chamberlin Basin Country. Grangeville: Idaho County Free Press, 1968.
  • Walgamott, Charles S. (Charles Shirley). Reminiscences of early days: a series of historical sketches and happenings in the early days of Snake River Valley. 2nd ed. of facsim. reprint. Seattle, Wash.: Shorey Book Store, 1973.

Gen. Nelson A. Miles. United States. [Between 1860 and 1870] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018669039.

Idaho Statehood – July 3, 1890

Kootenai War of 1974

The President has signed S.-634 – Kootenai Indian Trust Land, Idaho, which transfers 12.5 acres of Federal land into trust status for the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho.

The Kootenai Tribe, which numbers about 60 persons, resides in the northernmost part of Idaho near the Canadian border. Although the tribe is federally recognized, it has no reservation, and its members live on a number of scattered tracts of allotted land. The bill will transfer to trust status two adjacent tracts totaling 12.5. acres which are owned by the Federal Government, thus creating a reservation. The bill provides for transfer of the lands without consideration, it contains the standard off-set provision which directs the Indian Claims Commission to determine whether and to what extent the value of the land should be set off against any pending claim against the United States.

– Notice to the Press, Office of the White House Press Secretary. October 19, 1974. Digitized from Box 4 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0248/whpr19741019-008.pdf. Accessed Septemer 14, 2018.

The Nez Percés war / from sketches by an army officer. 1877. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695125.

This page updated by Ronnie Joiner on August 2, 2021.