These rolling hills and coulees were the site of the last battle of the 1877 Nez Perce War. For the Nez Perce, it ended a 1,170-mile journey after many successful skirmishes along the way, with Canada only 40 miles farther and its mountains visible on the horizon. Squeezed by treaties into an ever smaller territory, the Nez Perce hoped for a new home across the border. This was not a typical war of soldier against warrior, because the Nez Perce were trying to relocate an entire people. In the camp below were 500 women, children, and elderly people, with fewer than 100 warriors. Here the U.S. Army, with 400 troops and 50 scouts, finally halted the Nez Perce flight. The battle ended the campaign but not the story: the White Bird band escaped to Canada and lived with Sitting Bull's band of Lakota at Fort Walsh, while the rest of the Nez Perce were exiled first to Kansas and later to Oklahoma. Today many Nez Perce live in or near their original homeland, and their culture lives on.