Chief Joseph Highway Metal Sculpture

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 153 of over 1200 images

Dead Indian Pass, a metal sculpture commemorating the
1877 flight of the Nez Perce through this area of Wyoming

The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, a forty-six-mile paved highway in Wyoming, closely follows the path Nez Perce took when they fled the US Army in 1877. While most of the Wyoming 296 route is through a series of open valleys surrounded by tall forested mountains in the Absaroka Range, it also climbs over an 8048-foot high mountain gap named Dead Indian Pass includes numerous twisting ascents and descents of large hills and crosses lower passes.²

The views of the higher peaks of the North Absaroka Mountains are excellent. But just as interesting is the superb view of the deep canyon that the Clarks Fork Yellowstone Flows through—from above it seems that the earth essentially split apart, allowing the river to pass through it.

The Nez Perce are an indigenous people of America who are believed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau for at least 11,500 years.  The first contact with whites likely occurred in the late 18th century when French Canadian fur traders visited the area regularly.  In 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition encountered the tribe, William Clark referring to them in his journals as the Chopunnish.

In the Treaty of 1855, the Nez Perce ceded 7.5 million acres of land but retained all traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering rights.⁴ Soon afterward, the ceded land was declared open for settlement, and rough-and-tumble miners and land hunters soon poured in, many of whom thought nothing of pillaging and killing Indians. After several other tribes retaliated, the US military responded, with Nez Perce fighting alongside the Americans in two September 1858 battles.  By the summer of 1862, there were nearly 20,000 whites in the area around the new town of Lewiston, named for Meriwether Lewis, with enough political power to demand the removal of the Nez Perce.⁵ The U.S. government initiated another treaty council that would shrink the 1855 reservation by 90%, a reduction of over 5 million acres. The bands living outside the proposed boundaries walked out and refused to endorse the 1863 Treaty.⁶

Where the American government saw one tribe, individual Nez Perce leaders had always regarded their bands as separate and independent.  Every band was self-sufficient, getting their own food from the land, and creating their own tools and clothing.  There was no governing body or chief over all of the tribes. After the 1863 council, the bands whose leaders signed the treaty were known as the “treaty” group. Those who had walked out were the “non-treaty” bands.  The chief of one of the non-treaty bands, Joseph, “was so incensed he tore up his copy of the 1855 treaty and his Gospel of Matthew… before he rode home.”⁷

The 1863 Treaty became known by the Nez Perce  as the “Thief Treaty” or “Steal Treaty.” It created the conditions that would eventually lead to an armed clash between the Nez Perce and the US Army.⁸

Hostilities that had been developing between the non-treaty Nez Perce and settlers became violent in 1877.  In May, after several attacks by the US Army the bands moved from their homelands towards the new reservation. On June 14 and 15, vengeance raids by warriors killed at least eighteen settlers.  The first major engagement with the US Army was at White Bird Canyon, Idaho Territory, on June 17, a lopsided victory for the Nez Perce. Thirty-four U.S. Cavalry were killed, two soldiers and two volunteers were wounded while only three Nez Perce warriors had been wounded. Outnumbered two to one and fighting uphill with inferior weapons, the Nez Perce used their knowledge of the terrain to win.⁹

After the White Bird Canyon battle, the Nez Perce embarked on an arduous trek, crossing Lolo pass into Montana Territory, dipping into and crossing the new Yellowstone National Park and a small portion of Wyoming Territory, and then heading north toward Canada, a roughly 1,170 miles (1,880 km) journey. After seeking the aid of the Crow tribe, they fled further north when refused, hoping to gain sanctuary with Sitting Bull’s Lakota Sioux, who had fled to Canada in May.¹⁰

Nez Perce strength during the 1877 war was estimated at a few hundred warriors. Traveling with many noncombatants, they had no formal military training.  The US Army used several thousand soldiers during the campaign, many with years of military training and experience, commanded by veterans of the Civil War.  By October, winter was approaching and the lack of supplies combined with the long travel over rough terrain had taken its toll.  After a five-day battle, Chief Joseph surrendered his remaining forces.¹¹

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Origin of the name¹²

There are two accounts of the naming of Dead Indian Pass. The first refers to the Nez Perce flight in 1877. A Nez Perce was reputedly killed near the pass and it acquired the name. The second account states that in 1878 Col. Nelson A. Miles and his soldiers encountered a group of Bannock Indians. The Crow Indian Scouts killed a Bannock and buried him here.

Post Endnotes

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
2. “The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway in Wyoming: Information, Photos and Maps.” Big Sky Fishing.Com. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.bigskyfishing.com….
3. “Nez Perce.” Wikipedia, most recent edit September 5, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://en.wikipedia…Nez_Perce.
4. “Treaty of 1855.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov…1855.htm.
5. “Aftermath of 1855 Treaty.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov…aftermath-of-1855-treaty.
6. “The Treaty Period.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov….the-treaty-era.htm.
7. “Treaty of 1863.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://www.nps.gov…treaty-of-1863.htm.
8. “The Treaty Period.”
9. “Battle of White Bird Canyon.” Wikipedia, most recent edit June 18, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://en.wiki…White_Bird_Canyon.
10. “Nez Perce War.” Wikipedia, most recent edit August 9, 2021. Accessed September 8, 2021. https://en.wikipedia…Nez_Perce_War.
11. Kennaly, David. “The Nez Perce War of 1877.” U.S. Army, October 1, 2009. https://www.army.mil….
12. “Dead Indian Pass.” Wikipedia, May 25, 2021. https://en.wikipedia….Dead_Indian_Pass.

Series Notes:

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay, Flickr, and Pinterest.
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image-sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.