The Hayes administration deals with several conflicts with native tribes.

The Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph, had begun an uprising in June 1877 when Major General Oliver O. Howard had ordered them to move on to a reservation.

Howard's men had defeated the Nez Perce in battle, and the tribe had begun a seventeen hundred-mile retreat into Canada.

In October, after a decisive battle at Bear Paw, Montana, Chief Joseph had surrendered and General William T. Sherman had ordered the tribe transported to Kansas.

Between November 8 and 10, the Nez Perce prisoners leave Fort Buford for what had been Custer's post command at the time of his death; Fort Abraham Lincoln, across the Missouri River from Bismark in the Dakota Territory.

About two hundred leave in the mackinaws on November 9 guarded by two companies of the First Infantry, the rest on horseback escorted by troops of the Seventh Cavalry en route to their winter quarters.

A majority of Bismarck's citizens turn out to welcome the Nez Perce, providing a lavish buffet for them and their troop escort.

On November 23, the prisoners have their lodges and equipment loaded into freight cars and themselves into eleven rail coaches for the trip via train to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.