This condition of affairs continued for thirteen years with various efforts in the meantime to arrive at some more satisfactory settlement. Finally, in 1876, a civil and military commission was appointed to visit the Nez Percé Indians, to examine into their grievances, and to determine what measures were necessary for a permanent settlement of the question. The report[AQ] of this Commission is interesting, both for the facts it relates in regard to the tribal life and characteristics of the Nez Percé Indians, and for the heroic treatment of the long-standing troubles which it recommends. [AQ] See Report of Secretary of the Interior, 1877, part 1, p. 607. See also Appendix E, "Nez Percé Indians," etc. These Indians were altogether a peculiar people. The early missionaries had converted them to the Christian faith, and, whether from that cause, or from natural proclivity, they were among the most religious of our Indian tribes. There is a general concensus of authorities that, despite certain grave defects of character, they were, mentally and morally, far above the average Indian. In later times, approaching the period covered by this sketch, they fell under the influence of a class of mystics called "dreamers," who taught a doctrine of land ownership which was the immediate cause of all their subsequent troubles. This doctrine was, in substance, that "the 'Creative Power,' when he made the earth, made no marks, no lines of division or separation, upon it, and that it should be allowed to remain as it is;" that it "should not be disturbed by man, and that any cultivation of the soil, or other improvements, any voluntary submission to the control of government," were incompatible with the true purpose for which it was made. At bottom it was the broad principle that no man or aggregation of men can take from other men the right to enjoy what nature has made free for all. Why the Commission should characterize this doctrine as "pernicious," unless a thing is pernicious whenever it is impracticable, is not easy to understand. From the point of view of the nomadic life of the redmen, it is hard to conceive a theory of land tenure, or the want of it, more nearly approaching a perfect ideal. Unfortunately for such a doctrine, at the point at which American history had now arrived, it was no longer possible of realization; and any attempt to put it in force could not result otherwise than in failure. So it was with Joseph and his followers. The government for a long time overlooked their infractions of the Treaty of 1863, but finally was compelled to interfere. The Commission recommended that the existing treaty be enforced, by military aid if necessary. The recommendation was approved, and to General O. O. Howard fell the task of putting the Indians on their proper reservation.