An Administrative History of Big Hole National Battlefield. INSTITUTION National Park Service (Dept
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 440 038 SO 031 703 AUTHOR Catton, Theodore; Hubber, Ann TITLE Commemoration and Preservation: An Administrative History of Big Hole National Battlefield. INSTITUTION National Park Service (Dept. of Interior), Washington, DC. PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 202p.; Prepared by Historical Research Associates, Inc., Missoula, Montana for the National Park Service's Columbia Cascades Support Office. AVAILABLE FROM United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Big Hole National Battlefield, P.O. Box 237, Wisdom, MT 59761. Tel: 406-689-3155. For full text: http://www.nps.gov/biho/adhi/adhi.htm. PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC09 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *American Indians; Educational Facilities; Field Trips; *Government Role; Historic Sites; Indigenous Populations; *National Parks; *United States History; *War IDENTIFIERS Nez Perce (Tribe); Site Visits ABSTRACT Few places in the west are as evocative of the tragic story of the Indian Wars as Big Hole (Montana) National Battlefield. The site memorializes the bravery of the Nez Perce and U.S. soldiers and volunteers who fought there during the epic flight of the Nez Perce in 1877. Big Hole preserves the scene of one of the most famous battles of the Indian Wars. This administrative history is divided into chronological chapters, with each chapter divided into topical sections and subsections. A chronological organization highlights two salient themes in Big Hole National Battlefield's administrative development:(1) its long evolution as a small unit assigned to a succession of federal agencies (the War Department, the Forest Service, and the National Park Service); and (2) the close connection that exists between its land base, interpretive (education) program, and resource management. Chapters are: (1) "The Battle and Its Aftermath (1877-1883)"; (2) "Administration under the U.S. Department of War (1883-1910)"; (3) "Administration under the U.S. Forest Service (1910-1936)"; (4) "Administration under Yellowstone National Park, Early Years (1936-1956)"; (5) "Administration under Yellowstone National Park, Later Years (1956-1977)"; (6) "Administration under the Rocky Mountain Regional Office (1977-1987)"; and (7)"Administration under Other Small Units (1987-1997)." An appendix contains laws and executive orders. (Contains 82 references and 458 chapter notes.) (BT) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Cr) OCommemoration and Preservation: Cr) An Administrative History- of O Big Hole National Battlefield U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of ucational Research and Improvement 0 EDU ONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as Ci) received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this 113-EST-COPTAVAILABEE- document do not necessarily represent official OERI position cr policy. Commemoration and Preservation: An Administrative History of Big Hole National Battlefield Prepared for NATIONAL PARK SERVICE n I)eperfreoot of Ole Merl., USDI National Park Service Columbia Cascades Support Office by Theodore Catton, Project Historian Ann Hubber, Project Historian Historical Research Associates, Inc. Missoula, Montana 1999 3 Table of Contents Preface iii Chapter One The Battle and Its Aftermath (1877-1883) 1 Chapter Two Administration under the U.S. Department of War (1883-1910) 13 Chapter Three Administration Under The U.S. Forest Service, (1910-1936) 23 Chapter Four Administration under Yellowstone National Park, early years (1936-1956) 43 Chapter Five Administration Under Yellowstone National Park, Later Years (1956-1977) 61 Chapter Six Administration Under the Rocky Mountain Regional Office (1977-1987) 93 Chapter Seven Administration under other Small Units (1987-1997) 109 Conclusion 145 Annotated Bibliography 147 Endnotes 153 Index 183 Laws and Executive Orders Appendix A 4 Big Hole National Battlefield. Photograph courtesy of National Park Service. Cover Photograph. Chief Joseph and Colonel John Gibbon, erstwhile adversaries in the Battle of the Big Hole, sat for this portrait many years later. Photograph courtesy of Big Hole National Battlefield. ii 5 Preface Few places in the West are as evocative of the tragic story of the Indian Wars as Big Hole National Battlefield. This site memorializes the bravery of the Nez Perce and U.S. soldiers and volunteers who fought here during the epic flight of the Nez Perce in 1877 and preserves the scene of one of the most famous battles of the Indian Wars.Located in the lush Big Hole Valley in southwestern Montana, the beauty and tranquility of the setting add immeasurably to the solemnity of the battlefield. "One of the great ironies associated with American battlefields is that they are often quite beautiful," cultural historian Edward Linenthal observed in his book Sacred Ground. Here the picturesque natural setting has changed relatively little since the day of the predawn attack on the Nez Perce village, August 9, 1877. Today, this national park system unit of 655 acres encompasses most of the principal features of the battlefield. Roughly rectangular in shape, it is bounded by the two-lane State Highway 43 on the south, Beaverhead National Forest on the west and north, and private ranch land on the east. Bisecting the area, the North Fork of the Big Hole River meanders in a northeasterly course through ,swampy bottomland. Battle Mountain rises on the northwest side of this river valley, Ruby Bench on the southeast side. )- BIG HOLE BBattle Mountain is backed b ythe forest- 0 Twin Trees. covered Anaconda Range, Ruby Bench \-1N NATIONAL by the high, open expanse of the Big Hole Valley. BATTLEFIELD "i Overlook The natural boundary between forest Site of and steppe at this location, although in Monument Nez Perce pronounced, does not quite follow the Howitzer Camp Capture \I saw- foot of the mountains. The lower slope of ,) ; Battle Mountain is marked by a treeless, /Ask t's ./ grassy, open area now known as the rcs;:cis- -picruci .../obetw- Horse Pasture. Here, the Nez Perce Nei ,-Visitor grazed their horses while they were C,!fiq4- Center encamped along the other side of the river, and from this point came the pre- dawn attack by the U.S. soldiers and To0 w volunteers. To the west of the Horse 011.1 0.5 Kilometer To Wisdom /0mi Pasture, in a draw known as Battle Gulch, () 0.1 0.5 Mile 16km the lodgepole forest extends down to the valley floor over a low promontory known as the Point of Timber. This site was the defensive position picked by Lt. Colonel John Gibbon when he called retreat. Forced back across the river and taking the high ground within these trees, Gibbon's command dug rifle pits and threw up breastworks in a roughly circular position now known as the Siege Area. iii BEST COPYAVAILABLE As originally established in 1910, Big Hole Battlefield National Monument consisted of just five acres where the siege had taken place. Enlarged to 200 acres in 1939, the national monument then included all of the Siege Area plus the route of Colonel Gibbon's approach and the area along the foot of Battle Mountain from which he had launched his initial attack. Still outside the boundary of the national monument, however, was the Nez Perce Encampment Area where some of the fiercest fighting had occurred on the morning of August 9. Further additions, authorized by an act of Congress in 1963 and accomplished over the next decade, brought the Encampment Area and the development site into the unit. Bloody Gulch, where most of the Nez Perce withdrew while the warriors held their attackers at bay, remains outside on private land. This administrative history is divided into chronological chapters, with each chapter divided into topical sections and subsections. We chose a chronological organization to highlight what we thought to be two salient themes in Big Hole National Battlefield's administrative development: first, its long evolution as a small unit assigned to a succession of federal agencies (the War Department, the Forest Service, the National Park Service) and then to a succession of other units within the national park system (Yellowstone National Park, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Nez Perce National Historical Park); and second, the close connection that exists between its land base, interpretive program, and resource management. Since its establishment as a national monument in 1910, Big Hole has been an administrative orphan, passed from one agency or unit to another about every ten to twenty years. Prior to 1910, the War Department had a limited involvement in the administration of the battlefield. From 1910 to 1933, the administration of Big Hole battlefield was shared between the War Department and the U.S. Forest Service. Since coming into the national park system in 1933, Big Hole has been, assigned to regional offices in Omaha, Denver, Seattle, and San Francisco, while its unit managers have reported directly to superintendents of Yellowstone National Park, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, and Nez Perce National Historical Park. At different times the NPS has regarded Big Hole as coming within the political and recreational orbit of Yellowstone (as the nearest large national park in Montana), or within the interpretive orbit of Nez Perce Country, centered in Idaho. Frequent changes both in regional administrative boundaries and in thematic groupings of national park system units have impeded the smooth development of Big Hole's physical plant and management plans. Throughout its history, Big Hole National Battlefield's land base has exerted a powerful effect on how the site was interpreted and protected. The soldiers' monument, erected in 1883, was explicitly dedicated to the U.S. military's role in the battle and tacitly overlooked the Nez Perce experience and perspective. This imbalance was perpetuated in the proclamation of 1910, which set aside five acres around the soldiers' monument but left the Nez Perce Encampment Area in private hands.