Old Missoula

Aged Indian On Trip Over Old Nez Perce Trail

“White Hawk” Accompanies Historian on Jaunt Through Lolo Pass.

“White Hawk,” 74-year-old Nez Perce Indian, who was with the band that in 1877 came from Idaho through the Lolo pass into the Bitter Root and south through the Big Hole country and then to the Bear Paw mountains, has just made the trip again.

“White Hawk,” was a lad of 16 years on the retreat, but says he was not a warrior. He was in Missoula Monday with L. V. McWhorter of Yakima, Wash., author of a history on the Nez Perce nation, who is securing material for a second volume.

Mr. McWhorter said they made the trip from Kooskia, Idaho, through the mountains. “White Hawk,” does not speak English, so “Many Moons,” another Nez Perce tribesman who resides in Idaho, acted as interpreter. McWhorter said that part of the trail they followed was that taken by the Indians, but that at times “White Hawk” would point out they were making short cuts while the Indians back in 1877 followed the ridges. “Many Moons” was not with the Nez Perce party in the early days on the trip through here, but relatives were.

On the trip through the Lolo pass they were accompanied by Emil Kopec of Oshkosh, Neb., a photographer.

From Missoula Mr. McWhorter and the two Indians departed on the North Coast Limited Monday for the west, Mr. McWhorter to Yakima and the Indians to northern Idaho.

Upon the return here after going over the route followed by the Indians of the tribe 58 years ago, Mr. McWhorter met Barnett Wilkinson, one of the last survivors of the Big Hole battle of 1877. Mr. Wilkinson took them up the up the Lolo where they visited the site of old Fort Fizzle, established when the Nez Perce Indian first came over the pass into the Bitter Root.

When the Indians went south from Lolo there were only about 500 white inhabitants in the Bitter Root.

Stevensville and Corvallis were the only settlements. Florence, Victor, Hamilton, Grantsdale and Darby were established after those memorable times.

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on August 27, 1935

https://www.newspapers.com/image/352385056/

 

L. V. McWhorter wrote several books. Two are linked below.

 

“Yellow Wolf – His Own Story” by McWhorter was published in 1940. See link below:

https://archive.org/details/yellowwolfhisown002070mbp/page/n8

 

He was also the editor of Cogewea, The Half-Blood” – the story of “Mourning Dove” or Christine Quintasket, who wrote about her life as a mixed blood in the Northwest – linked below:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b244111;view=1up;seq=8