Includes bibliographical references (pages 629-638) and index.

Pt.1 The tribe: "Their hearts were good" -- Fur trade embroilments -- pt.2 The agressor: "Creatures so far below" -- Children of grace -- "The scene, the most awful and interesting" -- Chiefs, laws and massacre -- Rengeance on the Walla Walla -- A most satisfactory council -- The bloody shirt -- Ho for Idaho! -- pt.3 The War: The Wallowa -- "The earth is my mother" -- The partiots -- "This most wonderful of Indian Wars" -- Chief Joseph an epilogue. From dust jacket: "The confrontation of the Indian and non-Indian is at the center of this history of the Nez Perce tribe and its part in the development of the Northwest. Mr. Josephy traces the story of the tribe's conquest and disposession by the white man, from the time of Lewis and Clark to the great fighting retreat of the band associated with Chief Joseph and other leaders in 1877. The embroilment of the Nez Perces in the fur trade is extensively dealt with in terms that provide a new understanding of the tribe's early relations with white men and its reception of missionaries."