Battle of Canyon Creek - Aftermath

Aftermath

Without much difficulty the Nez Perce held off and escaped from a cavalry force outnumbering them at least two to one. However, the loss of about 400 horses to the Crow scouts was a blow as it placed an additional burden on their remaining and increasingly worn-out horses and slowed their flight toward Canada. They had also expended much of their scarce ammunition. The betrayal of them by the Crow was a psychological blow and after three months of a fighting retreat they were physically exhausted.

Sturgis’ casualties in the long-range battle were three killed and eleven wounded, one of them mortally. Martha Jane Cannary, better known as “Calamity Jane,” accompanied the wounded by boat down the Yellowstone River as a nurse. Sturgis claimed to have killed sixteen Nez Perce, but Yellow Wolf said that the Nez Perce had only one warrior and two old men killed, and those by the Crow. He said that three Nez Perce were wounded by the soldiers.