Kapkap-Ponmi: "Noise of Running Feet"

When the War of 1877 broke out Kapkap-Ponmi was a young girl merely 12 years old. She had been born in 1865 to Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht "Joseph" and Heyoom Yoyikt.

On September 30, 1877 Kapkap-Ponmi was out checking on the horse herd with her father Chief Joseph west of Snake Creek. Suddenly they were under attack from Colonel Miles's troops. Joseph caught Kapkap-Ponmi a pony and told her to escape. The day after Chief Joseph surrendered he sent Yellow Wolf to find Kapkap-Ponmi and bring her to him. Yellow Wolf did find Kapkap-Ponmi but did not bring her back to Joseph. Instead Yellow Wolf joined White Bird's band and Kapkap-Ponmi and escaped to Canada.

In June of 1878 Kapkap-Ponmi traveled back into the United States. Kapkap-Ponmi was turned over to her aunt and place in the Lapwai Agency School where she was simply known as Sarah. Why she was separated from her parents and not allowed to join them in exile is yet another atrocity of the U.S. Government's Native American policy during the 19th Century. Joseph's isolation from his daughter was to be part of his punishment. In 1879 she married George Moses, another Nez Perce, at Spalding. She later died of malaria at Lapwai some years later. She never had any children.