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.He had equipped each of his men with ninety rounds of ammunitionand a day s food rations and sent them forward under the cover of dark-ness.He instructed them to form a line high above the camp and to ad-vance as close as possible in formation, then to wait until they heard thefirst shot.Then they were to charge the camp and finish the job thatHoward and Rawn had been unable to complete.By the time the first lines of daylight were limning the distant easternmountains, Gibbon s soldiers were settled into positions not more than afew hundred yards from the sleeping Indians.They were wet and shiveringfrom crawling through dew-covered grass, but their efforts had broughtthem into perfect position for a surprise attack on the campsite.Slowlythey began their advance across the marshy creekbed, wading chest deepin the frigid, mountain waters toward the eighty-nine lodges of sleepingNez Perce.Across in the people s camp, an old man named Natalekin was unableto sleep.He decided to cross over to the hillside to visit his horses.The skywas still dark, and his eyesight was poor, so he depended on his horse toguide him.As he approached the soldiers, they became convinced they were about In a Dream Last Night I Saw Myself Killed 147to be discovered, so one leveled a shot.Almost instantly three other shotswere fired, and Natalekin fell from his horse, mortally wounded.In their teepees the Nez Perce heard the sound, unsure whether it was adream or gunfire.Many had been asleep for only a few hours and were stillgroggy with exhaustion from their late night of games and singing anddancing.But when the few sporadic shots were followed by a fusillade ofgunfire, they knew they were under attack.The men, half awake, groped in the darkness for their clothing andrifles.The young children rolled over and rubbed their eyes, wanting toknow what was happening.Infants began squalling, and the camp dogswere thrown into a barking frenzy.Outside, the horses that had been keptin camp began to snort and kick.Quickly, the women grabbed the children and pulled them by theirarms to get them up and out of the teepees.Many of the little ones, slum-bering comfortably under the heavy robes in the warmth of the lodges, justrolled over and snuggled deeper into their blankets.Then bullets beganripping through the hides and canvas of the teepees.The whole camp quickly descended into chaos.The crack of riflesmingled with the shouts of warriors and soldiers.The air filled with thechoking smoke of gunpowder, making it impossible to identify the shad-owy figures running between the lodges.The heavy-booted footsteps ofsoldiers could be heard amid the howling of dogs and the frantic shrieksof terrified horses.The women who could escape ran toward the safety of the creek andthe willows, dragging the screaming children behind them.The sick andold, unable to move quickly, tried to find their clothing and make their wayinto the brush or into some low, hidden spot near the creek bottom.Horses ran through the camp knocking over lodges and trampling cook-ing gear and clothing.Suddenly, the sky was alive with flames.The soldiers were lighting theteepees on fire.The camp filled with the acrid smoke of smoldering animalskins and the sickening sweet smell of burning human flesh.The cries andmoans of elders and the infants trapped in the burning teepees cutthrough the dawn.Many of the Nez Perce warriors were half dressed and without theirrifles.They had run out of their lodges and found the soldiers splashingup the creek bank into the camp.They had fought back with their hands,148Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Percewith rocks, with sticks, with war clubs, any way they could.They hadjumped on the soldiers backs, pulled them down, beaten them withstones anything to protect the women and children.The soldiers had now overwhelmed the camp and were shooting every-where, aiming low into the lodges to kill the children and those still sleep-ing.They fired into the teepee for the infants, the teepee for the sickpeople.The piercing cries of the newborns could be heard amid the des-perate wails of mothers trying to shelter their wounded and dying infants.From the midst of the chaos, the voice of White Bird rose up. Sincethe world was made, brave men fight for their women and children, heshouted. Are we going to run to the mountain and let the whites kill ourwomen and children before our eyes? It is better that we should die fight-ing. Hearing these words from the mouth of a seventy-year-old man, themen who had panicked at the outset of the fighting turned and headedback into the camp
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