oothly, when
without warning some bad white men raided the gathered cattle, and
killed one of the herders.

This aroused the young men, again. A grand council of the Pierced
Noses met, and talked war and peace both. Chief Joseph talked peace.
He was very anxious to get his people into the reservation before more
killings took place. The thirty days were almost up.

Then, on the very last day, or June 13, his young men broke away from
him. There was one, whose father had been killed by the settlers.
There were the young man's father's relatives. There were two Indians
who had been whipped.

The young man rode away from the council, vowing war. He and his
friends went out; they killed the white murderer, and others; they came
back and shouted to the council:

"Why do you sit here like women? The war has already begun."

So it had. Joseph and Ollicut were not here, but Chief White Bird
hastened about, crying:

"All must join now. There is blood. You will be punished if you stay
back."

More went out. The man who had whipped the two Indians was killed. A
dozen of the settlers were killed. Chief Joseph found that war had
been declared; plenty of ammunition had been collected without his
knowing it; there was no use in any peace talk now.

He tried to make his people agree not to injure more settlers. Then he
moved the camp to White Bird Canyon, at the Salmon River in Idaho just
across from the northeast corner of Oregon.

They did not have long to wait. General Howard at once sent two troops
of the First Cavalry against him. Troop F was commanded by Captain
David Perry, and First Lieutenant Edward Russell Theller of the
Twenty-first Infantry; Troop H was commanded by Captain J. G. Trimble
and First Lieutenant William B. Parnell. The two troops numbered
ninety men. Ten settlers joined them, so that the whole number was one
hundred.

Chief Joseph and Chief White Bird his assistant had sixty warriors. At
dawn of June 17 Ollicut, through a spy-glass, saw the soldiers entering
the narrow canyon.

Ollicut and White Bird wished to cross over the Salmon River with the
women and children, and fight from the other side.

"No, we will fight them here," said Joseph.

He had never fought a battle. The soldiers and settlers did not expect
him to do much; he himself did not know what he could do; but he was a
born general, he had watched the white soldiers drill, and, as he
explained: "The Great Spirit