Nez Perce defeat U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon

Background. Tensions between Nez Perce and white settlers rose in 1876 and 1877. General Oliver Otis Howard called a council in May 1877 and ordered the non-treaty bands to move to the reservation, setting a deadline of 30 days. By June 14, 1877, about 600 Nez Perce from Joseph's and White Bird's bands had gathered on the Camas Prairie, six miles west of present-day Grangeville, shortly before the confrontation.

Engagement. The battle was fought on June 17, 1877, in Idaho Territory. U.S. forces, led by Captain Trimble and Lieutenant Theller, engaged Chief Joseph and his people. The encounter resulted in a significant defeat for the United States, described as a lopsided victory for the Nez Perce. This engagement marked the beginning of the broader conflict between the Nez Perce and the U.S. Army.

Context. The United States sought to remove Chief Joseph's Wallowa band of Nez Perce from their ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon onto a significantly reduced reservation in the Idaho Territory. After violent encounters with white settlers in the spring of 1877, those Nez Perce who resisted removal, including Joseph's band and an allied band of the Palouse tribe, fled in an attempt to reach political asylum alongside the Lakota in Canada.