The Dying Grass, page 169
Parnell: “Well, general, if we keep harassing them . . .”—Somewhat after Michno, p. 339 (Parnell’s words).
“Both armies were burning the cotton . . .”—Almost verbatim from Howard, op. cit., p. 129.
A horse for seventy-five earring-shells—Information after Carrington, p. 218.
Indian sign for cartridge—W. P. Clark [Captain, Second Cavalry], The Indian Sign Language, with Brief Explanatory Notes of the Gestures Taught Deaf-Mutes in Our Institutions for Their Instruction, and a Description of Some of the Peculiar Laws, Customs, Myths, Superstitions, Ways of Living, Code of Peace and War Signals of Our Aborigines (Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 1982 repr. of 1885 ed.), p. 97.
Camas Meadows
Howard’s orders, and his dialogue with Buffalo Horn (which might never have taken place)—Loosely after Nez Perce Joseph, pp. 176, 219–25.
“Ain’t hardly no game hereabouts even as big as a mockingbird.”—Somewhat after Elizabeth Custer, p. 166. At least there were lots of trout.
Description of Camas Meadows—After a visit in August 2007. I spent the night in Dubois, Idaho. The closed library’s window still said FREE CHILDREN’S BOOKS, and half Main Street was for sale but nobody was buying. In the empty park an informational sign explained that more than ninety percent of the sagebrush in the American West had been obliterated. The opal shop, direct from the miners to us, had gone to heaven. One pay phone remained, in the convenience store by the freeway. And on that hot afternoon where the sprinklers played over arid lawns, a train track with half a dozen empty Union Pacific boxcars crowned an embankment, and far off on the other side, leftwards of a church, an American flag stood firm.
“the blue-backed Webster’s spelling book Gracie used to carry to school”—A pioneer emigrant (Oregon Historical Society [Portland] MSS 233, “Virginia Watson Applegate, Recollections 1840–1852,” p. 6) mentions her “blue-backed Webster’s spelling book.” She was born in 1840, and Grace Howard in 1857.
The moon—Actually, Howard specifically remarks that the night was moonless (loc. cit.), but when I was at Camas Meadows there was a spectacular moon, and so by God I am going to put it in.
“We’ve been tenting to-night . . .”—The Annals of America, vol. 9, p. 502 (no. 122, Walter Kittredge, “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground,” 1862).
Information on Mars’s proximity to Earth, and the discovery of at least one moon—After Whitman, p. 804.
Dialogue between General Howard and Lieutenants Wood and Howard re: sleeping pantaloon-less—Fairly closely after Nez Perce Joseph, p. 225, with a few interpolations.
“THE UNION MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED”—Plate in Sullivan, p. 263.
Howard’s fall in Livermore—After his Autobiography, vol. 1, p. 254.
“Father, lie down or you’ll be hit!”—After Howard, Autobiography, vol. 2, p. 476.
“Lie close . . .” + Howard’s rejoinder—Howard, Nez Perce Joseph, p. 225.
Dialogue and events until return to camp—Somewhat after the same, pp. 225–29.
Colloquy with Trimble—Entirely invented. Howard does not state who was responsible. The real life Trimble would probably not have been caught like this.
“The responsible innocent suffer for the irresponsible guilty . . .”—Somewhat after the Autobiography, vol. 1, p. 136.
The death of Brooks—Information from Greene, Nez Perce Summer, p. 366 (Appendix A: U.S. Army Casualties, IV).
Henry’s Lake
Calloway’s withdrawal with the wounded—Mentioned in Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 23.
Injuries of Glass, Trevor et al.—The Soldiers’ Side, p. 97 (H. J. Davis, “The Battle of Camas Meadows”).
The country from Camas Meadows to Henry’s Lake inclusive—After a journey through this area in August 2007.
Arrival of the Bannocks from Fort Hall—Howard, Report—In the Field, loc. cit.
The four blacks at the Centennial Exhibition—Information from Bellesiles, p. 10.
“The squaws will have a jolly good time cooking our mules.”—Much after Pollock, p. 77. However, this exchange could not have occurred since Pollock’s company was actually forty-one miles in the rear when the Camas Meadows raid occurred (ibid., p. 76, datelined Henry’s Lake, August 25).
Jim’s story: Grindstone Creek—Information from Michno, p. 42.
Bugler Brooks tries to get back in the saddle—The Soldiers’ Side, p. 99 (Colonel J. W. Redington, “Story of Bugler Brooks”).
Doc’s theory: “Only two ways to fight savages, boy . . .”—Paraphrased from Bourke, p. 36. (“To fight savages successfully, one of two things must be done—either the savages must be divided into hostile bands and made to fight each other, or the civilized soldier must be trained down as closely as possible to the level of the savage.”)
Location of the Nez Perce camp at Henry’s Lake: Southwestern shore—McWhorter, Hear Me, p. 434.
The huge black currants along the lake—Frank D. Carpenter, p. 37.
Meat available at Henry’s Lake—Information from the same, p. 41.
Location of Mr. Sawtell’s ranch—Ibid., p. 35.
Distance from Lewiston to Henry’s Lake—Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 68. Distance, average mileage and days in march since Kamiah are from the same source, p. 24; likewise the distance covered by Carr’s company (which had travelled the farthest).
Medical assessments of the army at Henry’s Lake—Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 36.
Wounds received at Camas Meadows—Information from Helen Addison Howard, p. 268. There were eight casualties in all.
Five days to get resupplied from Virginia City—Sutherland, p. 31.
General Order Number Six—Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 38 (actually, dated August 28, Camp Cañon, Wyoming Territory, so it would have been issued just after the Army departed Henry’s Lake).
Captain Fisher’s souvenirs—Somewhat after information from Pearson, p. 46.
Wood’s sketches—Ten of them were published on 3 August “in the New York Press,” says Venn (p. 45), in which case they must have been sent off from Kamiah or thereabouts (before Lolo and after Clearwater). For narrative reasons I thought it better to have Howard more anxiously looking after his “media image” nearer to his unpleasant communication from General Sherman.
Howard’s explication of Joseph’s intended direction—Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 34.
Howard’s orders to Cushing, Field and Norwood—Ibid., p. 23.
“giving vouchers which don’t even pledge the credit of the Government”—After Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 24.
Howard’s trip to Virginia City with Guy and Captain Adams—Mentioned in Nez Perce Joseph, chapter XXXIV.
Description of muleteers bringing the mail—After Elizabeth B. Custer, p. 53.
“the dark side of the Indian question”—George Armstrong Custer, p. 270.
“I hear from Portland that you have delivered publicly a lecture . . .”—Bowdoin, OOH papers. M91. Box 13. M91.4: Correspondence, western command period, May 1, 1875–Dec. 20, 1877. Folder: March 1–20, 1875. The letter truly was dated March 1, but I have pretended it was written in 1877. (There seem to be very few letters dated from the Nez Perce War period.)
Letter about strong drink—Abbreviated and slightly altered from the same folder. Letter from Harry M. Smith, dated March 8th, 1875.
Information on George Beauddry—He is fictitious, but the format of his signature card derives from a facsimile in Washington, p. 5.
Fall of pig iron to $16.50 a ton—Bellesiles, p. 7.
The wingspan of Ad Chapman’s swan—Based on the measurements of Cowan’s trophy bird in Frank D. Carpenter, p. 40.
“And Empire Transportation has sold out to Standard Oil.”—Information from Bruce, pp. 300–301.
GOD Help Me
The dialogue at the beginning of this chapter implies that Howard’s army was on the march between Henry’s Lake and the receipt of Sherman’s message. In fact the message came while they were still recuperating at Henry’s Lake. I chose to alter reality in this way in order to give the men’s fatigue more prominence.
Death of Crazy Horse—Information from Utley, p. 180.
“Everything is paid up except the taxes . . .”—Bowdoin, OOH papers. M91, Box 13 [M91.4: Correspondence, western command period, May 1, 1875–Dec. 20, 1877]. Folder: June 11–30, 1877. Letter from John H. Cook, dated June 16.
Sherman’s letter to Howard—Ibid. Folder: August 1–31. Letter abridged by WTV. I have capitalized the first letter of “department” in order to conform to other usage in this book.
Howard’s recollections of himself and Sherman at the grand review—After Sherman, p. 805.
“Why art THOU so far from helping me . . .”—Psalms, 22.1, 22.15 (abridged and concatenated).
Howard’s travails at West Point—After his Autobiography, vol. 1, pp. 51–53.
Howard’s belief that Mason’s skirmish with Joseph at Weippe “really ended the campaign within the limits of my Department”—Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 11.
Events in Tampa—Howard, Autobiography, vol. 1, p. 80.
“there’s Communist poison spreading through the railroads . . .”—After Bruce, p. 225. (The National Republican, July 21: “Communistic ideas are very widely entertained in American by the workmen employed in mines and factories and by the railroads. This poison was introduced . . . by European laborers.”)
Chancellorsville: The order from Hooker’s lieutenant colonel—Burke Davis, They Called Him Stonewall: A life of Lt. General T. J. Jackson (New York: Rinehart & Co., Inc., 1954), p. 423.
The one time Howard felt fear before battle—Information from Autobiography, vol. 1, p. 154.
“In thirty-one days you have gained fifteen days . . .”—Much after Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 39.
Whatever Light There Is
“We show ourselves unhappy lovers . . .”—Euripides, vol. II, Hippolytus, p. 141.
List of substandard reservation goods, and mention of arrest for hunting off-reservation—U.S. Congress, Congressional Record, Containing the Proceedings and Debates of the Forty-Fifth Congress, Second Session, vol. VII, Part III (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1878), p. 2796 (Transfer of Indian Bureau to War Department).
“When I find—as for instance in Arizona or Nevada . . .”—I consider the rest of this paragraph so important to understanding Howard’s motivations that it seems worthwhile to quote its original: “When he [the Bible man] finds, as in Arizona, Nevada or Alaska, an Indian tribe very degraded indeed, as some are, as yet in the dimmest twilight of knowledge, full of maddening passions and unclean habits, he never sees, if he looks with carefulness, such a tribe growing better by its own motion.”—Bowdoin, OOH papers, M91.8: Articles and addresses. Folder 6: “Christianity Among Indian Tribes,” p. 3. The remaining sentence in my paragraph is lifted verbatim from the same typescript, p. 6.
“Communistic ideas are now widely entertained in America.”—Washington National Republican, 1877, quoted in Bellesiles, p. 144.
“Communists might take over Philadelphia or New York.”—After Bellesiles, p. 145.
The Land of Wonders
“Mr. Oldham, shot in face . . .” + the two dispatches to San Francisco and Fort Ellis, August 29—After Howard, Report—In the Field, p. 37 (abbreviated).
“The former Blackfoot country”—According to Humfreville (p. 211), the Yellowstone River once marked the boundary of the Blackfoot hunting grounds.
The Earl of Dunraven’s cookery—Information from Frank D. Carpenter, p. 49.
The Prismatic Hot Spring [now Mammoth Hot Spring]—Ibid., p. 56.
“a number of sulphurs”—Pollock used this last word in a letter to his wife (op. cit., p. 91).
Parnell: “in ’67 Colonel Perry went out for thirty days straight . . .”—Information from Michno, p. 306.
Fisher’s position on the Madison—Montana Historical Society. SC 692. S. G. Fisher Diary. “Journal of S. G. Fisher, Chief of Scouts to Gen. O. O. Howard during his campaign against the Nez Perces . . . ,” p. 23.
“even as little as they are ridden, they won’t stand one-fourth as much as an American horse.”—Much after Zimmer, p. 108 ([August] 27th).
The Crow uprising of 1834—Information from Bradley, pp. 81–82.
“The soldiers from Fort Ellis are our friends” + complaint about beef—Verbatim from Bradley, p. 42 (said to Gibbon the previous year). “Are you from Fort Ellis?” is my addition.
Death of Half Yellow Face—Information from the same source, p. 154.
“Let Bacchus’s sons be not dismayed . . .”—From “Garyowen,” the signature tune of Custer’s Seventh Cavalry. The band played this during the dawn raid which commenced the Battle of the Washita. It also sounded during Colonel Chivington’s massacre of the Cheyennes at Sand Creek, Colorado. Lyrics from Elizabeth Custer, p. xix.
Mason’s judgment of the hot spring (useful for washing clothes)—Abbreviated from Montana Historical Society, mss. no. 80, pp. 199–200 (Mason’s letter home).
Prices of buffalo hides, 1877–78—Sandoz, p. 317. Of course at this point in time Redington would have been anticipating a little. The season was still in progress; the extent of the boom, and the price slide, might not have been known for another couple of months.
“I’m a-going back to the Crows to buy a young squaw,” & c—After Zimmer, p. 66 ([June] 24th): “White is going back to the Crows & buy a young squaw. He says that he can get a nice one & a good worker, 16 years old, by giving the old folks about $40 worth of presents . . . He can speak the Crow language quite well for the time he has been there, so he says, & by getting the squaw will soon get it thorough.” Indeed, he married a girl named Yoho-na-ho, and stayed with her until she died in 1921.
Description of General Terry—After a photo in Philbrick, insert following p. 70.
Howard’s excuses to Perry about Chancellorsville (until then the greatest blemish on his record)—Howard, Autobiography, vol. 1, pp. 365, 372, 374–75.
Incident involving Captain Griffith of Philadelphia—Ibid., p. 443.
Sherman’s escort to Yellowstone: “L” Company—Zimmer, p. 81 ([July] 18th).
Sherman’s decoration of 31 of Miles’s soldiers—Zimmer, loc. cit.
Description of turning out the guard to receive Sherman—Procedure from Kautz, pp. 33–34.
Howard’s meeting with Sherman at Chickamauga, the conference at Chattanooga, and comparisons between Sherman and Grant—Autobiography, vol. 1, 481–82, 473–76.
They Are the Ones Who Did Wrong Things
Peopeo Tholekt’s temporary capture of Chapman’s horse—McWhorter, Hear Me, pp. 420–21.
Mourning Dove—An invented character. This female name was taken from Aoki’s dictionary.
Description of the line of horses—Information from Frank D. Carpenter, p. 97.
Description of Yellowstone National Park—After a trip there in August 2010.
The embassy to the Crows—Helen Addison Howard (p. 298), whose book occasionally contains details (possibly erroneous) not to be found in McWhorter, writes that Looking-Glass “reportedly rode ahead to hold a conference with the Crows.” McWhorter (Hear Me, pp. 459–60) calls this “one of the romantic myths that has [sic] developed around the Nez Perce war,” arguing that “it is unlikely the Nez Perces clung to any conception of the Crow country as a refuge after the battle of the Big Hole . . . Instead the Nez Perces apparently met a few Crow warriors while en route from Yellowstone to Canyon Creek. These proved friendly . . .” I have chosen to imagine otherwise, because why else would the Nez Perce have taken the long way to Canada? Looking-Glass must have been desperate to redeem himself; the possibility of refuge with Tendoy probably seemed remote; perhaps Lean Elk did lead the People in this very roundabout way simply in order to avoid capture, but I see no reason that some delegation would not have “reached out” (as modern corporate types would put it) to the Crows. See also Greene, Beyond Bear’s Paw, p. 11.
Description of Looking-Glass’s ornaments—Somewhat after Helen Addison Howard, p. 276 (Frank Carpenter).
Húsus Kute’s headband—After a description in Koch (p. 102) of the “stand up” headbonnet employed by Nez Perce and others.
Benefits to eyes of eating buffalo liver—Information from Leforge, p. 156.
Ollokot to Joseph: “Elder brother, stay here and I shall go for you . . .”—A bit after McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, p. 36. When Howard summoned the Nez Perces to Walla Walla, Ollokot persuaded his brother not to go, saying: “You stay here. I will go see what is wanted.”
Description of Painted Hills—After a visit to Painted Hills National Monument, Oregon, in August 2013.
Meaning of the Crow’s X-painted face—Koch, pp. 29–30.
The Lost Lodges and other Crow clan names from 1877—Raymond J. DeMallie, ed. [of this vol.], Handbook of Nothern American Indians, vol. 13, part 2 of 2: Plains (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2001), p. 702 (Fred W. Voget, entry on Crow).
The way that Crow women incite men to war by waving scalps—Information from Leforge, p. 258.
Mexican brands on many Crow horses—Montana Historical Society. SC 683. John W. Redington papers. SCOUTING IN MONTANA. By Colonel J. W. Redington, U. S. Scout and Courier in Nez Perce and Bannack Indian Wars, and Assistant Adjutant General of Oregon, 1879–83 [henceforth: Redington, “Scouting in Montana”], p. 6.
Serving meat in a buffalo’s shoulderbone—Linderman, p. 14.
Crow name for white men: “Yellow Eyes.”—Ibid., p. 22.
Description of Curley’s bare chest and neck—After photos in Philbrick (insert following p. 294).
Description of White Man Runs Him—After a photo in Kavanagh, p. 27 (“White Man Runs Him [Crow]”).
