For the treaty-band nimíipuu who had remained on the Lapwai Reservation throughout — who had not participated in the flight, who had sometimes tried to mediate, who faced their own complications as relatives of people who had fought — the ending was yet another set of circumstances.

And for the nimíipuu descendants who live in the twenty-first century, the story has not ended at all.

It has continuations: in the ongoing relationship between the tribe and the federal government, in the management of sacred sites, in the conversation about the Wallowa Valley, in the annual rides along the historic trail, in the language preservation efforts, in the ongoing presence of a people who survived what was intended to eliminate them as a distinct community.

White Bird’s choice at Bear Paw was not the end of anything except his own participation in the specific engagement at Snake Creek.