The Wild West of Yester-Year
Yellow Wolf
By Rachel Kovaciny
Warrior. Survivor. Storyteller. Historian. Yellow Wolf was
all of those.
Most of what we know about Nez Perce culture and heritage is due to one man: Yellow Wolf. This Nez Perce warrior spent a sizeable amount of his last twenty years conveying his eyewitness account of Nez Perce life to a white writer, L. V. McWhorter. The book that resulted, Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, was not published until after both the storyteller and the chronicler had died. But, thanks to their efforts, we have a much more complete understanding not only of Nez Perce culture, but of the causes of the Nez Perce War of 1877.
Yellow Wolf was a first cousin of Chief Joseph, the
legendary Nez Perce leader, though once removed. That
generational gap caused Yellow Wolf to refer to Chief Joseph
as his uncle rather than cousin, out of respect. Born in
Oregon's Wallowa Valley around 1855, Yellow Wolf spent his
boyhood hunting and fishing. He was recognized by his
community as an exceptionally skilled horseman and hunter by
the time he reached manhood.
A series of broken treaties during the 1850s and 1860s
resulted in the Nez Perce people being pushed into ever
smaller areas. In 1877, the government decided to relocate
all the Nez Perce to a small reservation in what is now
Idaho. When many Nez Perce protested, General Oliver Otis
Howard threatened to forcibly relocate them, and then threw
one of their statesmen in jail.
The Nez Perce were a divided people, with some embracing
Christianity and others continuing their ancestral religious
ways. Now they splintered along the lines of who would
submit to this insulting show of force and sign the treaty,
and who would refuse to sign and instead fight against the
government. For five months, the Nez Perce who rejected the
treaty fought against the U.S. military in a roving war that
covered some 1,600 miles. Yellow Wolf was one of them.
Yellow Wolf participated mainly as either a scout or a rear
guard for the fleeing Nez Perce. During that five-month war,
he was wounded five times and was made a chief. At the
Battle of the Big Hole, he helped capture a piece of
artillery. Even after Chief Joseph surrendered, Yellow Wolf
and a group of other Nez Perce refused to give up. They
sought refuge with Chief Sitting Bull in Canada.
A year later, Yellow Wolf returned to the United States and
surrendered. But instead of being reunited with his family
and friends on the Nez Perce reservation, Yellow Wolf was
sent to Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. It was not
until 1885 that he and the other non-treaty-signing Nez
Perce were allowed to return to the Pacific Northwest and
live with their families.
Yellow Wolf married twice after returning to his own people.
His first wife gave him a son, Billy Yellow Wolf. Records do
not tell us if his first wife died, or if they separated,
but he married again in the 1890s and had another son and at
least one daughter with his second wife.
While working in the Yakima Valley as a migrant hops picker
in 1907, Yellow Wolf met rancher L. V. McWhorter. When he
returned for the horse the following summer, McWhorter asked
if Yellow Wolf had fought in the Nez Perce War of 1877.
McWhorter had purposely moved west to get to know the
American Indians and learn about their history and culture.
Through an interpreter, he and Yellow Wolf began a series of
conversations that stretched across decades.
Yellow Wolf's account of the war differed greatly from the
official accounts, and McWhorter was intrigued. He began
seeking out other Nez Perce survivors of the war and taking
down their accounts as well. He helped Yellow Wolf and
others get jobs, including working for the early movie
studios making costumes like feathered war bonnets.
McWhorter and Yellow Wolf went on several trips together,
visiting battlefields and other locations from the war.
Yellow Wolf said he wanted his story written down and shared
with the world so that white people could learn the truth
about him and his people, and so that the young Nez Perce
would not forget their own history. Sadly, when Yellow Wolf
died in 1935, McWhorter had not yet completed the manuscript
of his memoirs. Yellow Wolf was buried near his cousin,
Chief Joseph. Only his son Billy Yellow Wolf was still
living at that time. McWhorter published Yellow Wolf: His
Own Story in 1940.
When McWhorter died in 1944, he left all the results of his
research to Washington State University. The gift of his
interview transcripts, maps, correspondence, and other
manuscript materials helped found the university’s modern
research library. Together, Yellow Wolf and L. V. McWhorter
created one of the most extensive archives of American
Indian heritage in existence. Yellow Wolf wasn’t able to
defeat the American government as a young man, but he was
victorious in his later quest to share his people’s
perspective, culture, and history. ♦