In the quiet predawn of August 9, 1877, along the tranquil banks of the North Fork of the Big Hole River, Chief Joseph and his refugee band of more than seven hundred Nez occurred warriors, women, and children were startled awake by four gunshots. Advancing stealthily toward the camp, Colonel John G. Gibbon and his Seventh U.S. Infantry had stumbled upon a solitary Indian rider and shot him from his horse. Less than thirty-six hours later, between sixty and ninety Nez Perce would be dead, as well as twenty-two soldiers, a civilian guide, and five civilian volunteers.

Describing events that occured six weeks into the famous, five-month running battle now known as the Nez Perce War of 1877, The Battle of the Big Hole is a study of the heartbreaking futility of the Indian wars as well as a look at the cultural misunderstandings that helped give rise to those wars. From an array of original documents and first-person accounts, noted author Aubrey L. Haines presents the only exhaustive retelling of one of the landmark conflicts in the history of the American West.