Fort Keogh at the junction of the Tongue and the Yellowstone was located on the west side of Miles City. The same site is now the home of the Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Station. AII that remains of the original fort is two dilapidated officers" quarters and aa unkempt parade ground.

Half of one of the officers' quarters was moved to the Range Riders Museum .8 mile east of Fort Keogh. This private museum with a cornmitment to the preservation of local history is located on the site of the Tongue River Cantonment, the predecessor of Fort Keogh.

I directed General Miles to keep the prisoners till next Spring, it being too late to send them to Idaho by direct routes this Fall and too costly by steamer or rail.

Gen. Oliver Otis Howard
October 10, 1877

But,

They remained in that place [on the Yellowstone] for ten days or two weeks,when I received an order from the higher authorities to send them down the river to Bismarck, Dakota. They were therefore placed in boats and sent down the Yellowstone to its junction with the Missouri, thence down the Missouri to Bismarck.

Col. Nelson Miles

Both Miles's superior, General Phil Sheridan, and the General of the Army, William Tecumseh Sherman, had overruled General Howard's decision to send the Nez Perce home. They thought that sending them to Indian Territory would teach them a lesson.
General Phil Sheridan
William Tecumseh Sherman


Timeline

Credits

The Nez Perce Flight to Canada - An Introduction

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