Imprisonment and Reconciliation: nimíipuu at Vancouver Barracks

Adapted from “In the Heart of the City”: A Historic Resource Study of Vancouver Barracks by Dr. Donna Sinclair, with additional information from the Nez Perce Tribe and the US Forest Service.

nimipuutímt names

In this article, nimipuutímt (Nez Perce language) names may differ from those used elsewhere. Based on guidance from the Cultural Resource Program Director of the Nez Perce Tribe, these changes move towards indigenous ways of referencing individuals and groups of nimípuu (Nez Perce) before the colonial period. Personal names will be given in nimipuutímt and then in English for the first occurrence. Band designations will follow the same format, as well as referencing the land or a resource (“life sources”) before an individual leader.

From the beginning of remembered time, the nimíipuu people have lived on the Columbia River plateau in the Pacific Northwest. French Canadian traders called them “Nez Percé.” In the 1870s, attempts to forcibly confine the nimíipuu to a smaller reservation within their vast traditional homelands put many in direct conflict with the US Army. One group, most of whom (but not all) were led by tim’íne’ilp’ilp (Red Heart), wished to stay neutral in this conflict but became embroiled in it anyway, leading to their arrest by US Army troops and imprisonment at Vancouver Barracks in an event that has been called “one of the most unjust episodes of the Nez Perce War.”

Setting the Stage for Conflict

The late 1800s was a time of intense conflict in the American West, as Indigenous peoples were killed, imprisoned, and forcibly removed from their homelands to make way for American settlers and miners. Vancouver’s role in this story began to take shape in the 1850s. In 1849, the US Army established Vancouver Barracks just north of the site of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver. This location was carefully chosen. At the confluence of several rivers, as well as trails that had been established by Indigenous peoples over thousands of years, Vancouver Barracks’ location on the north bank of the Columbia River was an ideal place from which the Army could deploy troops and supplies to locations throughout the Northwest. But it wasn’t just Vancouver Barracks’ location that was significant. The post’s establishment in 1849 intentionally placed it in position to play a major role in the tumultuous decades to follow.

As the California gold rush and the establishment of the Oregon Trail inspired Americans to move westward in the 1840s and 50s, they called on their government to provide them with land and protection from the Native Americans they intended to displace. In 1851, Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act, which allowed for the creation of reservations. US Army troops were tasked with enforcing this legislation.

The options set before Tribes were limited. They could “peacefully” establish a treaty between their Tribe and the US Government, relocating their people to an established reservation that may or may not be on their traditional homelands, without knowing if they would have the resources to support their communities. Or Tribes could resist removal to a reservation and risk war with the US Army. At Vancouver Barracks, the consequences of some of these choices played out and, as the century wore on, Vancouver Barracks became infamous as a site for Native incarceration and enforcement of relocation policies.

The Walla Walla Treaty of 1855

For the Tribes of the Columbia Plateau, including the nimíipuu, the treaty-making process played an important role in setting the scene for future conflict. There were several issues. Sometimes, the US government did not honor the terms of a treaty. Often, Native negotiators felt coerced into signing. And, almost always, the federal negotiators fundamentally misunderstood the structure of Native leadership and assumed that those signing represented the entire “Tribe” as defined by the US government. One of the results was a schism between nimíipuu who supported the treaty and those who did not, called “non-treaty” nimíipuu. The Native peoples of the Columbia Plateau were pushed onto reservations that to some degree exist today. The nimíipuu retained 7.5 million acres in northeast Oregon and northwest Idaho.

For Tribes and Tribal groups that resisted relocation, violence continued throughout the 1850s and 1860s, with example after example of cruelty toward Native Americans and acts of vengeance in return. In addition to US Army soldiers, volunteer units organized to crush Native resistance. No matter that many Native people had not yet received the promised benefits of treaty-making or that, in many cases, they lived on their own lands. By the 1870s, large-scale imprisonment accompanied forced removal as the culmination of two decades of relocation and extermination policies.

Pursuit of the nimíipuu Bands

In the 1860s and early 1870s, American gold seekers, ranchers, and farmers pushed the US Government to move the nimíipuu who remained on their traditional homelands to the Nez Perce Reservation. By this time, many nimíipuu had already relocated to the reservation, but others continued to live outside its boundaries. With homelands in northeastern Oregon, the Wallowa Mountains, along the Clearwater River, and throughout central Idaho, the nimíipuu lived a seasonal round of fishing, gathering, and hunting that regularly took them across the Rocky Mountains to Montana. Non-treaty bands had not supported the 1855 treaty and absolutely rejected the 1863 Steal Treaty, and continued to engage in their annual, off-reservation seasonal rounds.

In November 1876, Department of the Columbia commander General Oliver Otis Howard ordered the nimíipuu out of the Wallowas. Several bands refused, and the Army began mobilizing to remove them by force. Several non-treaty nimíipuu bands, including hasúutino (Place of Lamprey, the band led by ‘elelímyete’qenin’ or Looking Glass the Younger) and wal’wáama or kimúynuu (Place of Dogbane, the band led by hinmatóowyalahtq’it or Chief Joseph), decided instead to head east over the Rocky Mountains and ultimately toward Canada. As they fled, from June through October 1877, the Army pursued. General Howard faced significant pressure from his superior officers and criticism in the press, intensifying his pursuit of the non-treaty nimíipuu. This event was known as the Flight of 1877.

On July 1, 1877, tim’íne’ilp’ilp and the group he led on a buffalo hunt in Montana had returned and were camped at the village of ‘elelímyete’qenin’ on the Clearwater River when they were approached by Captain Stephen G. Whipple. Whipple and the troops under his command had been sent there by General Howard to “surprise and capture this chief and all that belonged to him.” ‘elelímyete’qenin’ sympathized with the non-treaty nimíipuu but sought peace. The location of his village was actually on the established Nez Perce Reservation, but Howard remained suspicious that ‘elelímyete’qenin’ would not remain neutral. As the US Army soldiers arrived, ‘elelímyete’qenin’ sent an emissary to calm the battle-ready troops, but a soldier opened fire and a nimíipuu man was wounded. As the villagers fled, soldiers burned the village and captured the nimíipuu horses. tim’íne’ilp’ilp and his group of men, women, and children were among those who fled.

The nimíipuu present at the attack retreated to Weippe Prairie, no longer on the reservation. The hope that elelímyete’qenin’ had for peace was shattered; he and his followers resolved to join the non-treaty bands. Days later, on July 15, non-treaty nimíipuu arrived at Weippe, having survived a clash with Howard’s troops at the Battle of Clearwater. tim’íne’ilp’ilp greeted them and bid them farewell as the non-treaty bands continued over the Lolo Trail to Montana.

General Howard, upon learning that some nimíipuu remained at Weippe, sent a scout to demand their surrender and their return to the reservation. The group with tim’íne’ilp’ilp were unmistakably noncombatants and had a reputation for peacefulness. tim’íne’ilp’ilp himself was known as a dignified, honorable leader, and father of five. The impact of the Flight of 1877 was personal; his two eldest sons had joined the non-treaty bands on their journey north. When the scout approached them at Weippe Prairie to demand surrender at General Howard’s request, these nimíipuu agreed to go to the reservation but soon learned they would, instead, be incarcerated and even tried for murder. himíin maqsmáqs (Yellow Wolf), a nimíipuu warrior who arrived at Weippe after the Battle of Clearwater, later recalled: “[the group with tim’íne’ilp’ilp] had never been in any of the war. Coming from Montana, they had only met us there” at Weippe to avoid “any connection with the conflict.” However, the departure of tim’íne’ilp’ilp from the Weippe Prairie was interpreted by General Howard as an act of surrender, not realizing that these people had not been previously involved in the fighting.

“It was all right for Chief Red Heart not to join with us. It was all wrong for General Howard to send them as prisoners to Vancouver. They were peaceable Indians. They wanted no war.”

Where this belongs

• Fort Vancouver National Historic Site

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