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This article is an excerpt on the Nez Perce War of 1877, which appeared in the October 1889 issue of United Service. The Wallowa Valley is fifteen or twenty miles east of the Grande Ronde Valley in eastern Oregon and had long been a bone of contention between the whites and a band of non-treaty Nez Perce Indians under its chief, Joseph. The whites claimed the right of settlement under the U.S. land acts, and while no determined effort on their part was made to take up homestead, pre-emption, or other claims, claiming to themselves the entire control of the valley and surrounding hills for hunting and fishing, a right ceded to them by the U.S. government in 1855.

This article is an excerpt from an account of military operations conducted against hostile Indians from 1867 to 1868, which appeared in the May and June 1889 issues of United Service. In the spring of 1867, U.S. troops were relieved from duty with the 8th U.S. Cavalry, then being organized, and ordered to report for duty with the company and regiment at Camp C. F. Smith, Oregon. During the period, Indian tribes were not concentrated but were scattered over an immense territory, broken up into small bands of from twenty to fifty, roaming at will, destroying or stealing stock, and murdering small parties of prospectors or other travelers whenever found unprepared.