During this section of their retreat, their guide and the leader of their march was a half-Nez Perce, half-French man of several names, the most common being Poker Joe.

The pursuer of the Nez Perce, Brigadier General Oliver O. Howard, did not follow them directly, but rather took a shorter route to the east across southern Montana to intercept them near Yellowstone National Park.

Howard had 310 soldiers plus a varying number of civilian volunteers, usually several dozen, and Indian scouts, primarily Bannocks, but also some Nez Perce friendly to the U.S. Howard detached 50 men, including Indian scouts, under Lt. George R. Bacon to rush ahead and guard Red Rock Pass, thus hoping to catch the Nez Perce between his and Bacon's soldiers.

[7] The Nez Perce pursued by Howard probably numbered, after their losses at the Big Hole battle, about 700 persons with fewer than 200 warriors.

On August 13, after crossing into Idaho over Bannock Pass, the Nez Perce encountered a stockade full of White settlers at Junction.

Howard's plan was to cross into Idaho at Monida Pass (present-day Interstate 15) and intercept the Nez Perce at Camas Creek near Dubois.

[11][12] That same day, Captain Randolph Norwood and fifty fresh cavalry men, designated as Company 4 of the Second Infantry, also overtook Howard's command.

Bannock Indian scouts, ahead of Howard's cavalry, observed the Nez Perce rear guard cross the road toward Camas Meadows.

We went a good distance and then divided into two parties - one on each side of the creek... Before reaching the soldier camp, all stopped, and the leaders held council.

In spite of all the shouting, several men thought they heard "the great voice of Looking Glass" booming out orders.

[20]Under the command of Major Sanford, the cavalry companies of Captains Carr, Jackson, and Norwood, numbering about 150 men, set off at dawn in pursuit of the Nez Perce and the stolen mules.

The rear guard of the Nez Perce detected them and set up an ambush eight miles (13 km) north of Camp Callaway.

Several warriors continued driving the mules on to camp, and others deployed among hillocks of black lava and broken terrain dotted with Aspen trees and sagebrush.

A few Nez Perce deployed in a thin skirmish line in a grassy meadow about a half-mile (0.8 km) wide.

[21][22] The distance between these lines was too great for effective marksmanship, but when a shot struck Lt. Benson in the hip the soldiers discovered that the Indians in the meadow were serving as a decoy, while others had been creeping forward on both flanks to enfilade the troops.

Howard pushed forward and, mid-afternoon, came upon Norwood and his men crouching in their lava rock rifle pits located a few rods apart along the top and on the edges of a series of ridges that enclosed a protected area for their horses.

They were a "gorgeous set of warriors, hair dyed...decorated with...sleigh bells and feathers" and wearing buckskin and brightly colored blankets.

"[26] After learning that the Nez Perce had crossed into the wilderness of Yellowstone National Park, Howard called a halt to the chase and rested for several days at Henrys Lake.

The Nez Perce, burdened with wounded, women, children, and elderly had gone faster and further but, in the words of a journalist, they had the "faculty of stealing fresh horses from the settlers.

"[27] Meanwhile, Howard's superior General Philip Sheridan was collecting more than one thousand experienced soldiers and Indian scouts from many tribes to defeat the Nez Perce when they emerged from Yellowstone.