Gibbon struck before dawn.

The soldiers’ initial assault entered the sleeping camp.

Men, women, and children were caught in their lodges.

The first moments were a massacre.

Warriors rallied quickly — White Bird and other leaders worked to organize resistance — but the initial shock produced deaths that haunted survivors for the rest of their lives.

White Bird is credited in the accounts with extraordinary personal leadership during the defense at Big Hole.

He was elderly, not a young warrior, but he moved through the fighting and helped coordinate the defense that pushed Gibbon’s command back and eventually laid siege to the soldiers themselves, pinning Gibbon’s wounded men on a hillside until Howard’s advance arrived to relieve them.