Individual families and groups made individual decisions over the following years about whether to return, when to return, and what they would face when they did.

The Documented Return Of Some Refugees

Beginning in 1878, some nimíipuu from Canada began crossing back into the United States, trying to reach Lapwai or family members who had surrendered at Bear Paw.

The NPS “Nez Perce Summer, 1877” online history describes the early returnees: small parties, some as few as four or five people, crossing the border quietly and trying to reach the reservation.

Some were successful.