Looking Glass Camp History
Chief Looking Glass led a band that chose peace and compliance. On July 1, 1877, while his people camped on reservation land near the Clearwater River, the U.S. Army attacked unprovoked. The assault transformed a man of peace into a determined warrior who would guide the Nez Perce through their desperate flight.
A Leader's Choice
Chief Looking Glass had opposed the Treaty of 1863 and sympathized with those dispossessed of their homeland. Yet he chose a different path. Initially he gathered with the other bands at Tolo Lake in early June, where he repeatedly warned the leaders to restrain their angriest young people. On June 10, before the raids began, his band of about 150 people left Tolo Lake and moved to their assigned home on the eastern edge of the reservation near present-day Kooskia.
Looking Glass met General Howard's thirty-day deadline for relocating to the reservation. His people were abiding by the treaty, living peacefully on the land they had been assigned. They posed no threat. Yet Howard did not trust him. "With a view of preventing the completion of this treachery," Howard wrote, "I sent Captain Whipple, commanding his own and Winter's companies, and the Gatling guns, with instructions to make a forced march, surprise and capture this chief and all that belonged to him."
July 1, 1877 — The Attack
Captain Stephen G. Whipple arrived at Looking Glass's village on the middle fork of the Clearwater River at 7 a.m. on July 1, commanding 60 troops and 20 civilian volunteers. As the army approached, Looking Glass sent an emissary under a white flag to explain that his people wanted no trouble, that they had run away from war.
Before negotiations could even begin, an anxious soldier opened fire. A Nez Perce man fell wounded. The terrified villagers fled up a nearby wooded hillside. The soldiers burned the village, destroyed the band's possessions, and captured most of their 700 head of horses. Whipple failed to arrest Looking Glass or capture any of his band members.
From Peace to Resistance
The unprovoked attack achieved what Howard feared it would prevent. It transformed Looking Glass's resolve. Realizing that there was no path to peace while the army hunted innocent people, he resolved to join with the other "non-treaty" bands in their flight. Howard himself would later acknowledge the consequence of his actions, writing: "We thus stirred up a new hornet's nest."
Looking Glass was a skilled warrior familiar with the territory ahead. He provided invaluable assistance to the Nez Perce bands fleeing toward Montana. His knowledge, his courage, and his leadership became vital to their survival. The attack that was meant to prevent him from joining the resistance had instead guaranteed it.