It acknowledges the nimíipuu’s tactical competence while placing the events within a category (“retreat”) that implies a specific set of military options.

The nimíipuu were not conducting a military retreat in the formal sense; they were doing something more complex, which was trying to find a place to live in peace while being pursued by an army determined to confine them to a reservation.

The repeated tactical successes of the nimíipuu — White Bird Canyon, the defense at Big Hole, Camas Meadows, Canyon Creek — were not pursued as military objectives in their own right.

They were defensive actions taken in the context of a larger goal that was essentially civilian and political: finding a place where the community could exist without being forced into a reservation.