Nez Perce War, 1877

In 1877, United States authorities ordered several non-treaty Nez Perce bands to leave their homelands in the Pacific Northwest and move onto the reduced reservation in Idaho. After violence by a small group of young men, the crisis became open war. Nez Perce families and fighters began a long retreat through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana while the United States Army pursued them.

Leaders including Chief Joseph and Looking Glass attempted to protect a travelling community that included many women, children and older people. General Oliver Otis Howard directed much of the pursuit. After battles and repeated efforts to reach safety in Canada, the surviving group was surrounded at Bear Paw and surrendered in October 1877.

William T. Vollmann’s The Dying Grass centres on Howard while presenting the war through many competing voices. The novel connects the campaign to broken treaties, military bureaucracy, Civil War memory and the moral contradictions of a commander who regarded himself as a Christian reformer.