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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Digging for remnants of past


Diane and Jim Nebel stand on the battleground where Col. Edward J. Steptoe and warriors from a variety of local tribes had their last stand in 1858 outside of what is now Rosalia.
 (Rajah Bose / The Spokesman-Review)

ROSALIA, Wash. – Not everyone has history buried in his back yard, let alone a battlefield covered with mystery and uncertainty.

But residents in this northern Whitman County town do, and they want to dig up the truth about the Battle of Tohotonimme, which took place nearly 150 years ago just outside what now are their city limits. They’re hoping what they find will make not only for a clearer past but also a brighter future.

The battle site, on pasture and farmland south of town, was tribal territory where U.S. Army Col. Edward J. Steptoe and his 158 men and Nez Perce scouts found themselves in May 1858 in violation of a treaty. The infantry encountered a massive response from 600 to 1,000 armed Indians from the Palouse, Cayuse, Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and Yakama tribes.

Despite attempts at peaceful negotiations by both sides, a traveling battle started several miles north of Rosalia. The fighting took them south along Pine (or Tohotonimme) Creek and cost Steptoe the lives of five soldiers and two officers, as well as three Nez Perce scouts. The number of Native Americans killed is less certain.

There are disparate accounts of the event – about whether Steptoe escaped death by burying his cannons and slipping away in the dark, as he claimed, or if his Native American foes stood down and allowed him to depart. According to some histories, Father Joseph Joset and Chief Vincent of the Coeur d’Alenes advocated for Steptoe’s safe passage back to Fort Walla Walla.

There’s even debate about where the final battle took place.

What is undisputed is that Steptoe was outnumbered and that this was one of the last Native American victories in the Northwest.

Several months later, Col. George Wright came back through on a brutal retaliatory campaign to subdue the Indians. The Steptoe battle is “a story that is part of a much larger story,” said Stan Gough, an archaeologist at Eastern Washington University.

Now Rosalia locals, along with Gough and state and national parks officials, are hoping to dig into history and the battle sites. They want to find where Steptoe’s cannons were fired, where the fallen soldiers were buried (their bodies were later moved), and the final battle site.

“There are the official military records and then reminiscences from some of the people who participated in the battle or at least visited a few months later,” said Gough. “Then you’ve got the historical accounts and the Native American oral histories. Not all the stories match.”

Before anything can be done to clarify the story and make the site more accessible to the public, a thorough survey must be completed. “I’m hoping they can at least reduce the versions of what took place to a couple,” said Bill Fraser, regional park planner for the Washington state Parks and Recreation Commission.

Gough, his team from EWU, and possibly volunteers armed with metal detectors will start combing over Whitman County farmland in June.

Because Steptoe fled during the night, his soldiers may have left behind equipment, kitchen utensils and personal belongings, Gough said. “Hopefully we can find some buttons or buckles or stirrups – bits of metal so we can link a spot to the events,” he said.

When national battlefield experts recently visited the Steptoe site, they were stunned so much of it was visible. A good portion is pasture land while other parts are open fields covered with crops. In the East, Civil War battlefields are threatened by suburban development, said Kristin Stevens, of the National Park Service.

While many of the country’s other battlefields have been studied and documented, the Steptoe site is practically untouched. “The research is really just in its beginning,” Stevens said. “Nobody at this point knows how many acres will be included. This first effort is really just to try and assess what’s there.”

Two key components in Rosalia’s recovery efforts are Diane and Jim Nebel, retirees who have dedicated their days to local history projects. Several years ago Diane Nebel took her grandson to the battlefield memorial, but couldn’t find enough information there to make their visit meaningful. She called the state parks office and learned that there had never been an archaeological survey of the battlefield, something necessary before any interpretive signs could go up.

She and her husband traveled to a battlefield conference to learn how to write grants and, with the help of local state agencies, put in for funding to support an archaeological and cultural survey of the Steptoe site. Last year, they were awarded $25,000 from the American Battlefield Protection Program for the job.

This project starts just as another dig finishes – on the contaminated soil surrounding a 1923 Texaco gas station on Rosalia’s main throughway, Whitman Street. With money from the state Department of Ecology and grants from rural development agencies, the townspeople are turning the station into a visitor’s center for people to get a taste of local history as well as find more information about the battle.

This small territorial town nearly fell off the map in 1974 when the highway was diverted to the east. The business district dried up. Buildings emptied.

Today, it holds about 640 residents, many who commute to jobs in Spokane and Pullman. The locals are hoping that by reviving their rich past, they’ll be able to revitalize their picturesque rural community.

“We want to remind people there’s history down here,” said Nan Konishi, president of the Rosalia Chamber of Commerce. “It’s history we’re going to lose if we don’t do something right now to hang on to it.”

The Nebels are as excited about solving some mysteries as they are about restoring old Rosalia. That was one of the driving energies behind Diane Nebel’s arduous effort to secure permission from 50 different farmers whose land may have been crossed during the battle. She also sent letters to the tribes hoping to get their interest and participation.

Nebel has her own theory about the battle. She points to a 1914 photograph of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedication of a battlefield memorial. “See, there weren’t any trees,” she said, noting that this was just barely 50 years after Steptoe’s standoff. “There was no cover, just bunch grass. Even at night, how could you sneak away and not be seen?”

The locals have high hopes for the battlefield project. “Look at Custer’s dig,” said Konishi. “It changed the whole history of it.” Archaeological surveys at the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn in the 1980s and 1990s helped paint a more complete picture of George Armstrong Custer’s last stand and debunked many myths about how the battle unfolded.

And no matter what’s uncovered, people like the Nebels will ensure that Rosalia’s history stays intact for future generations.

“Long-term preservation of a site like this depends on long-term community support,” Stevens said. “We need them watching out their windows to be sure the battle site is in good condition and is respected. It’s something that’s really best done by neighbors.”