Collection on Stanton G. Fisher, 1877-1988

Stanton Gilbert Fisher (1840-1915) was an American pioneer best known as a civilian scout for the United States Army during the 1877 Nez Perce War. Fisher was born on July 10, 1840 in Jefferson County, New York. He and his family moved to a farm in Dodge County, Wisconsin in 1850. In 1860, Fisher – a jack of all trades – moved to California to try his hand at his first career, mining.

In 1867, Fisher bought an interest in a trading station at Ross Fork, Idaho, which was absorbed by the Fort Hall reservation the following year. Fisher worked as trader and postmaster for two years before selling the outpost and then participating in the Native Americans' annual buffalo hunt at the Yellowstone River in Montana. Upon returning to Idaho, he was hired to pursue a band of Indians that had attacked several miners. While tracking the Indians, Fisher contracted typhoid fever, which rendered him partially deaf for the rest of his life. Within a few years, he again sold the Fort Hall trading post and took up ranching. In 1875, he married Sarah A. Peck, with whom he had four children.

The Nez Perce War of 1877 took Fisher away from his ordinary life and swept him into the excitement of war and fame. He put together a company of "civilian scouts," of which he was appointed chief, and led them across Idaho and Montana in pursuit of the Nez Perce Indians. His experience with Indians aided him greatly in this endeavor – in fact, many of his scouts were Indians themselves. The military relied heavily upon him and his men and for the rest of their lives, the scouts received great honors for the work they did.

Fisher returned to Fort Hall in 1882. In 1883, he purchased his old trading post and moved his family back to Ross Fork, though for some time he retained a trading post he had founded in Pocatello, Idaho. He was once again appointed postmaster. Despite these investments, he continued to travel in pursuit of work; in 1888, he kept a journal of his journey to a mining camp in Custer County, Idaho.

In 1889, Fisher was appointed Indian Agent for the Fort Hall reservation, a responsibility he fulfilled while serving as Deputy Sheriff for Bingham County until 1895, when he was appointed Indian Agent for the Nez Perce Indians at Fort Lapwai. In 1899, he departed again to pursue work as a miner in Grangeville, where he lived for the remainder of his life until his death on July 29, 1915.