Big Hole National Battlefield is part of the famed Nez Perce Trail, and perhaps one of the most important battle sites in the whole trail system. By this point in the Nez Perce Tribe's flight, in August of 1877, they had already been on the run from the US Military after some skirmishes in Idaho. Their ultimate goal was present day Wyoming in order to try and seek an alliance and help with the Crow tribe. After crossing the Bitteroot Mountains they believed they were safe and took this time to rest and relax next to the North Fork Big Hole River.
Unbeknownst to the tribe, the US military had been closing in on their position and planned on trying to scare the tribe into surrender so that they could be forced onto the newly created reservation. While they were bedded down for the night in their camp, American troops were slowly approaching their camp to try and force the surrender.
Early in the morning one of the tribesmen went to check on the horses grazing on the nearby hillside. He unknowingly stumbled into the American troops, which resulted in in shots being fired. In a flash of confusion soldiers began raining fire down upon the camp. Some women and children were killed right where they slept. The pushed into the camp with orders to burn the village.
Confusion ensued with small bands of soldiers fighting hand to hand with the American soldiers, while Nez Perce chiefs slowly grasped the situation and organized a counter attack. They were able to drive the soldiers from their camp and forced them back across the river to a secluded area of trees and cover that would prove more defensible.
An interesting fact to note is that this group of soldiers were the same ones who had reached the battlefield after Custer's regiment had been destroyed in Eastern Montana just a year earlier. They had seen the massacre and suddenly found themselves in a similar situation. They frantically tried to take cover behind anything they could. Some tried to dig shallow trenches with their bayonets, that you can still see to this day.
The soldiers hunkered down while Nez Perce snipers picked them off and continued the assault, until their tribe could withdraw and continue their flight across Montana. Today a monument stands in the location of this part of the battle.
What does this all mean for us today? Certainly for history buffs this is an interesting place. You can study the military tactics, errors, and certainly try and transport yourself back 142 years to the time of this battle, as you stroll through the landscape that has remained relatively unchanged. It's a very humbling experience to spend time at this place where so much terrible and needless bloodshed occurred.
Before we started our visit, we spent some time talking to an interpreter at the park's visitor center. We were told just how important it is to not come into learning about this place with a biased view, and I certainly agree. There is no clear black and white in a lot of our country's history. On one hand you have the U.S. Government who in most cases broke treaties, lied, and forcibly removed American Indians from their native lands. In many cases even the military leadership held clearly wrong views of the native people.
But when you delve deeper into the personal accounts you realize how much more complicated these situations are. Soldiers who are torn between obeying their superior officers and country, and not killing innocent women and children. There are stories of great moments of compassion, brutality, kindness, and affliction. Individuals who refused to obey orders for the sake of saving human life, and those who go far beyond "just following orders", exacting unspeakable acts upon the Indians. There is no doubt that America's policy towards the Indians was wrong.
But then you have to delve deep into the Indian's history as well. If you strip away the contact with white settlers and study purely their interaction with their fellow tribes, you see that the American Indians were really no different from the whites. They fought among each other; went to war, pillaged neighboring tribes, killed women and children, etc. The Nez Perce were actually fairly well despised themselves. They were the envy of other tribes as they had intimidated and clawed their way into a position of power among their own people. Did they deserve to be evicted from their homelands? No. Were the Nez Perce an innocent people group who had done no wrong and were completely victimized? That's the tricky question...
What it really comes down to is the depravity of man and our need of a Savior. Without Christ guiding our lives every day we will fall prey to these blunders in history. You had two very different people groups each acting in their own interests and customs instead of following the ways of Jesus Christ. When we act out of selfishness, greed, anger, revenge, or other sinful emotions we hurt ourselves, others, and events like this battle by the Big Hole River occur.
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