The Battle of the Big Hole: A History of General Gibbon's Engagement with Nez Percés Indians in the Big Hole Valley, Montana, August 9th, 1877.

This is a vivid, contemporaneous account of one of the most brutal engagements of the Nez Percé War. G.O. Shields, writing just twelve years after the battle, captures the full horror and heroism of General Gibbon's dawn attack on the Nez Percé camp in the Big Hole Valley of Montana, where two cultures collided with devastating consequences. Shields details the strategies, the terrain, and the fierce fighting that left both sides bleeding heavily on the mountain meadow. Chief Joseph's warriors, vastly outnumbered, held their ground and withdrew in good order, continuing their desperate flight toward Canada and freedom. This is first-generation history: raw, detailed, and free from the sentimentality that would later cloud the Nez Percé's story. For readers who want the unvarnished truth about the American West's bloodiest chapter, told by someone who interviewed the survivors.