Nez Perce

Today we rode past the Big Hole Battlefield monument. The site maked the spot where a major battle between the Nez Perce Indians and US Calvary took place. The US was trying to force the Nez Perce onto a reservation. However many of these treaties were broken when something valuable was found on the land. Some of the Nez Perce accepted the treaty, but several hundred of them fled under the direction of Chief Joseph. The US calvary (led by a man who's name I cannot remember which is good) chased and pursued the Nez Perce from July until Octoberfrom Idaho into Montana with several major skirmishes occuring along the way. Skirmish is a nice way of saying fighting erupted and usually 10 or so people would get killed on both sides. The battle at the Big Hole was especially bad as many women and children were slaughtered as the Calvary surprised the Nez Perce while they were sleeping by a river . The Nez Perce eventually surrendered in Montana.
I was here in 2001, but did not stop at the battlefield as the ride was 92 miles long that day. Several years later I read a book called "Neither Wolf nor Dog" and part of that book described what happened to the Nez Perce. A few months after reading the book, I remember the ride just past the battlefield in 2001. We ran into a huge grasshopper swarm. There were hundreds of thousands of them. They totally covered the front of the van. I had to keep my mouth closed and jersey zippered all the way up and the grasshoppers were bouncing off of me, my helmut, sunglasses etc. This went on for an hour. After 6 years, suddenly I made the connection between the grasshoppers and the slaughter of the Nez Perce. It was as if the earth was trying to tell us that something very bad happened here.