On the long drive between Glacier National Park and central Idaho there is a particularly steep and infamous hill that strains the engine of many a car and is often clogged by slowly creeping semis churning their way up the steep grade. The original road can still be seen across the valley from the summit: a winding contorted collection of switchbacks that makes the casual traveler on the modern highway grateful for the newer road's lack of terrifying curves. However, it’s not the road that is of interest - this place has a much older and bloodier history to explore. Though today the only storms that visit White Bird Hill are those wild thunderstorms of an Idaho summer, once, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, it was the thunder of war that broke the silence of the hills.
In 1877, General O.O. Howard told the Nez Pierce Tribe they had 30 days to relocate. Soon after, young members of the tribe raided homesteads on the Salmon River. The Nez Pierce knew the attack would bring trouble, so they fled to White Bird. The cavalry was dispatched from Fort Lapwai to investigate the reports and arrest the perpetrators of the Salmon River raids, and escort the remaining Nez Pierce to Lapwai.The battle took place on White Bird Hill and in the creek valley below, and it was the Nez Pierce that emerged the victors. The American cavalry left behind 34 dead. Only three Nez Pierce were wounded, and they were able to retrieve a wealth of weapons with which to further arm themselves. The war would drag on, though with a tragic final end for the Nez Pierce.
Today the site of the battlefield is a wild and beautiful place, despite the highways. Grassy moors and quiet creek valleys roll into the distance to meet pine forests on the higher mountains, and the ragged summits of the Seven Devils loom beyond.
As we wound our weary way southwards, we stopped for a moment at the summit to read the interpretive signs at the Whitebird Battlefield unit of Nez Pierce National Historic Park. A massive thunderhead spread out above us, layers of clouds soaring up into a silvery haze of stormy light. It was a dramatic scene that brought the ancient war fought on these slopes to life. The thunder echoed off the canyons like gunfire, the wind whistled through the rocks like the screams of dying men, and when the hail came it pounded the ground like the marching feet of an army on the move.
Learn more about Nez Pierce National Historic Park here: https://www.nps.gov/nepe/index.htm
________________________________________________
Written in one hour for the #NatureWritingChallenge
