The movement through what is now Yellowstone National Park was a strange and disorienting passage.

Yellowstone had been established as the first national park in 1872, and by 1877 it was already attracting tourists.

The nimíipuu, exhausted and grieving and carrying their wounded and elderly across difficult terrain, encountered groups of American tourists who were visiting the geysers and hot springs.

Some of these encounters resulted in the capture of tourists, whom the nimíipuu held briefly and then released.

Some accounts describe the nimíipuu as attempting to avoid confrontation; others record shootings.