RETRACE continued from page 34 Trail) to meet and photograph the riders. The Weiners also raise Appaloosas on their ranch outside Greybull. Rumor has it there is a trail above the river, but it’s likely mighty hairy, so they stick with the Jeep Trail. While the Ranger ride was rough, it boggles the mind to think what the Nez Perce endured in 1877 when Chief Joseph led them away from American soldiers. The famed Indian leader was named Joseph at the Lapwai Mission in Idaho where he was born in 1840. His native name translated into English is “Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain.” Joseph’s father helped establish a large Nez Perce reservation by treaty in 1855. However, a gold rush in 1863 caused the U.S. government to reduce the reservation to a small area in Idaho, according to the Oregon Historical Society. With miners flooding the area, the government ordered the Nez Perce, led by Chief Joseph and other tribal leaders, to relocate to a new reservation. To avoid violence, they agreed to the relocation. However, when four settlers were killed by young Nez Perce, the U.S. Army retaliated against all Nez Perce, including those who were not part of killings, according to
the society. To avoid defeat by the Army, Joseph helped lead 600 Nez Perce toward the Canadian border. They defeated the Army in several battles while en route, and their slow retreat drew national attention. But in the late fall of 1877, Joseph and his weary people were surrounded just south of the Canadian border. The military was hot on Joseph’s heels, at times no more than a ridge away. The hill above the river appears almost perpendicular, but all the riders on the reenactment ride finally reach the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River. It was a steep trail that the Army did not attempt 136 years ago, but Chief Joseph and his people did, and so do the modernday riders. It was “impassable,” according to the cavalry, said Loretta Waltner of Sioux Falls, S.D., but the club members wanted to follow the historic trail, so they slowly descend down it. Maybe the breed of horses made the difference then and now. “They (Appaloosas) are so tough,” Waltner said. But even the spunky spotted horse has its Achilles heel just like its skittish cousins.
Waltner’s horse broke a shoe and later suffered a stone bruise on its foot, so Waltner hitched a ride for the last mile or so with the Weiners to rest her mount. Back at the river, Rita Lovell crossed the river to chat with the Weiners. Her handsome horse, “White Bird’s Fire,” towers over the folks on foot. He must be at least 16 hands at the shoulder, or withers, which equates to 64 inches. He has a milky coat, white mane and red-brown spots as though someone splashed him head to hoof with burgundy wine. Sitting atop her mount, Lovell watched fellow riders negotiate the perilous slope she descended just minutes ago. The switchbacks are so sharp her horse’s front quarters would nearly touch his hind quarters making the tight turns, Lovell said. Watching her friends brings to mind the 600 to 700 riders and 2,000 Appaloosas on Joseph’s run. “There is almost something spiritual about watching them come down,” Lovell said. Not all members of the modern-day party are white. Along with Europeans and riders from across the country, there are Lakota Sioux and Nez Perce making the ride too. Pat Weiner had a very good day photo-
graphing and chatting with riders she knows. “I love reenacting history,” she said. It was the scene of utter tranquility. The river sparkled invitingly as it must have for Joseph and his band. Riders ease their mounts into the current and the horses slosh about, reveling in the cool water while a trout snatches a fly from the surface a few yards upstream. Other riders lounge on the bank as cottonwood leaves flutter in the breeze like a million green butterflies yearning to join the trek. Lovell munched a sandwich and shared it with her horse. For dessert, White Bird gets his favorite, Fig Newtons. Ron Fowler, of Wenatchee, Wash., joined Lovell and the Weiners. He was the chief scout. Riding drag are a medical doctor, a veterinarian, a farrier and wranglers. “This is Day 4 and so far we have not had a single injury,” Fowler said Thursday. Scuttlebutt coming down the line reported the only casualty was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich getting squished.
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