The U.S.

Army was waiting for them.

Some parties that crossed back were captured.

Some were killed.

The Assiniboine and Gros Ventre nations, hired by the army to seek out returning nimíipuu, tracked some of the returnees.

The conditions of return were not what Joseph and the others who had surrendered at Bear Paw had been promised.

What Happened To Those Who Surrendered

The army’s assurances at Bear Paw — that the leaders would not be killed, that the people would be returned to Idaho — were not honored in the way the nimíipuu had understood them.