General Howard And The Thirty-Day Deadline

In May 1877, General Oliver Otis Howard called the non-treaty leaders together at Fort Lapwai, the military post in Idaho Territory, to deliver an ultimatum.

The non-treaty bands had been under pressure to move to the Lapwai Reservation for years, but Howard was determined to end what he regarded as an illegal occupation of land outside the reservation boundaries.

He gave the non-treaty leaders thirty days to gather their people, their horses, and their livestock and move to the reservation.

Thirty days, in May, to move entire communities — including all their horses and cattle — across rivers running high with spring snowmelt.