White Bird Battlefield

The war began when troops moved against the non-treaty bands in the Salmon River country; on June 17, 1877, Captain David Perry’s column advanced into the White Bird canyon and was decisively defeated by Nez Perce fighters led by war leaders including Rainbow, Five Wounds and Toohoolhoolzote — the battle killed 34 soldiers while the Nez Perce lost none. The defeat opened the war’s 1,700-mile flight that ended at Bear Paw in October 1877. The battlefield remains largely untouched rangeland; the Highway 95 overlook at the canyon’s rim interprets the action with the battlefield below, and the site is a unit of the Nez Perce National Historical Park. The battlefield remains largely untouched rangeland, and the Highway 95 overlook at the canyon’s rim interprets the action with the draws and ridgelines of the fight spread out below; the site is a unit of the Nez Perce National Historical Park, and its preservation is part of the wider effort to protect the war’s 1877 landscape from the White Bird canyon to the Bear Paw battlefield in Montana.