For the exhausted Nez Perce, this site, known to them as ćáynim?a•lika?spe, or Place of Manure Fire, appeared to be a good place to rest before continuing to Canada. Then a large force of U.S. soldiers surprised them from the east. After the Nez Perce blocked the initial attack of September 30th, the battle became a six-day siege, with sniper's bullets and artillery fire. The landscape looks much as it did in 1877, cold and snowing, which added to the suffering. The terrain played a role in the fighting and offered Nez Perce families only nominal shelter, and this place became the end of a four-month struggle. People died here.