Frank Carpenter was taken to to see Chief Looking Glass and met a Nez Perce - French Canadian named Poker Joe who spoke English.

Poker Joe met-up with the rest of the tourists and helped start what became one-sided horse trading - swap or be killed. With these terms the tourists accepted some worn-out Nez Perce horses for their own mounts

While people wre concentrating on the horse trading Poker Joe helped with an escape.

During the "swapping' that was carried on by the Indians, Poker Joe . . . pointed out a large grey horse standing near the woods, and told me to go and get him. I started to do so, and he went with me. Reaching the horse, he placed his hand on the saddle to see if it was on well, and then turned to me, and, putting his hand on my shoulder, said:

"You get'm in woods. Stay in woods. No get'm in trail again. Go quick," and gave me a shove into the timber. He shook me by the hand as he did so, and I got into the bushes as quickly as I could, then stopped and looked back to see what was going on.

Down below me I saw Dingee walking backwards and leading a horse around a marshy place, while an Indian followed him.... The rest of the party began to move, and the Indian stopped and looked around. I then spoke to Dingee and told him to leave the horse and come with me. The Indian then turned again, but Dingee was gone....

We started ahead, and by nightfall had made Gibbon's Fork.... As we had neither coats nor blankets, we amused ourselves that night by crawling over fallen trees to keep warm....

We reached the canyon of the Madison on the evening of the second day...

By the time we had made the summit of the mountain it was night, and the air being extremely cold we were compelled to travel all night to keep warm....

We traveled all that day, but very slowly... That night we suffered severely as it was extremely cold and so dark that we could not see which way to go. During the night I ascended a mountain to see which way to go, and left Dingee to wait my return. In returning I got lost, and wandered about a long time before I returned to him. On my return I found that he had built a fire, but as it was in a ravine I did not see it until I got close to him.

I was very weak and tired on my return, and sat down by the fire and dropped asleep. I awoke suddenly and found my clothing on fire. This would not do, so we began traveling again over fallen timber and through ravines until daylight....

That night we reached the main [Targhee] pass of the Rocky Mountains on the Madison Road....

We could see Henry's Lake below us....

At daylight we began the descent, and as we left the mountains, we could see the campfires lighting up in different places. I then thought we had struck another Indian camp, and was discouraged. We pushed on to reconnoiter, however, and as we approached, we heard a strain of the most beautiful music that I ever heard. it was a bugle call. We had found the soldiers.

A.J. Arnold
tourist-Radersburg party


Timeline

Credits

The Nez Perce Flight to Canada - An Introduction

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