The Nez Perce Treaty

Other treaty promises were also broken. The Nez Perce were promised $200,000 to be paid in scheduled annuities by the 1855 treaty. Congress later reduced this amount to a mere $40,000. None of this was received by the Nez Perce until 1862, when a small first payment of $6,396 was finally paid. There is no record of other payments received, so that may be the total amount for all the millions of acres of ancestral lands relinquished to the U.S. government by the Nez Perce.
In 1862, the U.S. military held a grand council with the Nez Perce chiefs to propose stationing troops on the Clearwater River to protect the Indians from the miners who were invading their territory. A new military post, Fort Lapwai, was established as a result. However,

This relinquished nearly 7 million acres of land and reserved only 785,000 acres for the Nez Perce. The group that signed this treaty is called the “treaty Nez Perce.” Fifty-one Nez Perce signed the treaty, and it is important to note that none of those signing lost any land. This represented High Chief (appointed so by the U.S. government and not by his tribe) Lawyer and his band, and less than one-third of the Nez Perce. Old Joseph, leader of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce, refused to sign this

In June, 1876, Alexander Findley, a white settler, found 5 of his horses were missing. “On June 22, 1876, Findley found a Nez Perce camp in the foothills and decided they had stolen the missing 5 horses. He went to get help. He returned with three men, including Wells McNall, a known Indian hater and trouble maker. There were no horses in the camp, but Findley still was certain they had stolen his horses, finding hoof prints he believed were those of his missing horses.” The Nez Perce were a long-standing horse people, known for their very fine horses, so the presence of hoof prints is not at all surprising. Nevertheless, Findley and McNall continued on alone, following the hoof prints, and found a second hunting camp of the Nez Perce where venison was being