Looking Glass

Looking Glass (Allalimya Takanin c. 1832–1877) was a principal Nez Perce architect of many of the military strategies employed by the Nez Perce during the Nez Perce War of 1877. He, along with Chief Joseph, directed the 1877 retreat from eastern Oregon into Montana and onward toward the Canada–US border during the Nez Perce War. He led the Alpowai band of the Nez Perce, which included the communities of Asotin, Alpowa, and Sapachesap along the Clearwater River in Idaho. He inherited his name from his father, the prominent Nez Percé chief Apash Wyakaikt ("Flint Necklace") or Ippakness Wayhayken ("Looking Glass Around Neck") and was therefore called by the whites Looking Glass.

Nez Perce War Although he disliked white encroachments on his ancestral lands, Looking Glass opposed going to war with the United States over its plans to force all the Nez Perce onto the reduced Indian reservation assigned to them at Lapwai, Idaho. His village of about 140 people was already within the bounds of the reservation on the site of the present-day Kooskia National Fish Hatchery in Idaho. However, General Oliver Otis Howard believed reports that Looking Glass planned to join the Nez Perce led by Chief Joseph, who resisted moving to the reservation, and sent a military force of 66 men under Captain Stephen Whipple to arrest Looking Glass. Whipple and his men arrived at the village on July 1. After a random shot was fired by an unknown party, the soldiers opened fire on the village with Gatling guns. Looking Glass and most of his band escaped, but the village and property was destroyed by the soldiers.

Looking Glass encouraged the Nez Perce to travel east and seek sanctuary with the Crow nation in Montana.

Legacy On July 1, 2000, 123 years after the attack on Looking Glass's village, the Nez Perce dedicated a nature trail on the site, and three years later put up a commemorative marker. A fishing area three miles north of Florence, Montana, was dedicated to him also, in 1971.