“Misty Mountains” as seen from Dead Indian Pass, Wyoming. 700 hundred Nez Perce tribal members, led by Chief Joseph, raced across this pass in 1877 towards the Absaroka Mountains, pursued by several hundred soldiers led by Generals Howard and Sturgis. Using a daring strategy, the Nez Perce feigned a movement in one direction towards the Shoshone River and then scaled down the nearly sheer cliff paths to the Clarks Fork River 1000 feet below to escape the Cavalry.