Chief Joseph
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Image:ChiefJoseph.jpeg Chief Joseph (1840–September 21, 1904) was the chief of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce Indians during General Oliver O. Howard's attempt to forcibly remove his band and the other "non-treaty" Indians to a reservation in Idaho. For his principled resistance to the removal, he became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker.
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Background
Born In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat (alternately Hinmaton-Yalaktit or Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, Nez Perce: "Thunder Rolling Over the Mountains") in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon, he was known as Young Joseph during his youth.
In his autobiographical account, Joseph says, "My father was chief before me. When a young man he was called Joseph by Mister Spaulding, a missionary." His father had been baptized in 1838 at Lapwai and always counseled peace with Whites.
While initially hospitable to the newcomers, Joseph the Elder became wary when settlers became rich and greedy for more Indian lands.
When governor of Washington Territory Isaac Stevens organized a council to designate separate areas for Natives and settlers in 1855, Joseph the Elder refused to participate, claiming that "no man owned any part of the earth, and a man could not sell what was not his own."
His refusal to sign caused a rift between the "non-treaty" and "treaty" bands of Nez Perce, who received blankets from the governor and annuities from the government for their cooperation with the government.
Another council in 1863, this time brought on by a gold rush, resulted in the seizure of six million acres (24000 km²) of Nez Perce land by a chief named Lawyer. Joseph the Elder boycotted this council as well, and upon its completion, demarcated Wallowa land with a series of poles, proclaiming, "Inside this boundary all our people were born. It circles the graves of our fathers, and we will never give up these graves to any man."
The "treaty" Nez Perce moved to the Nez Perce Indian Reservation in Idaho, while the "non-treaty" Nez Perce remained on their lands.
As chief
Joseph the Younger succeeded his father as chief in 1871. Before his death, he counseled his son:
"My son, my body is returning to my mother earth, and my spirit is going very soon to see the Great Spirit Chief. When I am gone, think of your country. You are the chief of these people. They look to you to guide them. Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more, and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother."
The non-treaty Nez Perce suffered many injustices at the hands of settlers and prospectors, but out of fear or reprisal from the militarily superior Americans, Joseph never allowed any violence against them, instead making them many concessions in hopes of securing peace.
In 1873, Chief Joseph negotiated with the federal government to ensure his people could stay on their land in the Wallowa Valley. But in 1877, the government reversed its policy, and General Howard threatened to attack if the Nez Perce did not relocate to Lapwai. Chief Joseph reluctantly agreed.
Before the outbreak of hostilities, General Howard held a council to try to convince Joseph and his people to relocate. Joseph finished his address to the General, which focused on human equality, by expressing his disbelief that "the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do."
Howard reacted angrily, interpreting the statement as a challenge to his authority. When Chief Too-hul-hul-sote protested, he was jailed for five days.
The day following the council, Joseph, White Bird, and Looking Glass all accompanied General Howard to look at different areas. Howard offered them a plot of land that was inhabited by Whites and Indians, promising to clear them out. Joseph and his chieftains refused, adhering to their tribal tradition of not taking what did not belong to them.
Unable to find any suitable uninhabited land on the reservation, Howard informed Joseph that his people had thirty days to collect their livestock and move to the reservation. Joseph pleaded for more time, but Howard told him that he would consider their presence in the Wallowa Valley beyond the thirty-day mark an act of war.
Returning home, Joseph called a council among his people. At the council, he spoke on behalf of peace, preferring to abandon his father's grave over war. Too-hul-hul-sote, insulted by his incarceration, advocated war.
The Wallowa band began making preparations for the long journey, meeting first with other bands at Rocky Canyon. At this council too, many leaders urged war, while Joseph argued in favor of peace.
While the council was underway, a young brave whose father had been killed rode up and announced that he and several other braves had already killed four white men, an act sure to initiate war.
Still hoping to avoid further bloodshed, Joseph began leading his people north toward the reservation. Only sixteen miles away, they were attacked, and Joseph began a strategic retreat now regarded as one of the greatest of all military history.
Retreat and surrender
With 2000 U.S. soldiers in pursuit, Chief Joseph led 800 Nez Perce toward freedom at the Canadian border. For over three months, the Nez Perce outmaneuvered and battled their pursuers traveling 1,700 miles across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
General Howard, leading the opposing cavalry, was impressed with the skill with which the Nez Perce fought, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications. Finally, after a devastating five-day battle during freezing weather conditions with no food or blankets, Chief Joseph formally surrendered to General Nelson Appleton Miles on October 5, 1877 in the Bear Paw mountains of Montana, only 40 miles (60 km) south of Canada in a place close to the present-day Chinook in Blaine County. It was here he gave his famous speech, interpreted by a scout and recorded by a Harper's Weekly artist and including the famous words "from where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.":
"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta-Hool-Hool-Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."
Although Joseph was not technically a warchief, and probably did not command the retreat, many of the chiefs who did had already died. His speech brought attention, and therefore credit, his way. He earned the praise of General William Tecumseh Sherman, and became known in the press as "the Red Napoleon".
Aftermath
By the time Joseph surrendered, more than 200 of his followers had died. His plight, however, did not end. Although he had negotiated a safe return home for his people, they were instead taken to eastern Kansas and then to a reservation in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
In 1879, Chief Joseph went to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Rutherford B. Hayes and plead the case of his people. Finally, in 1885, Chief Joseph and his followers were allowed to return to the Pacific Northwest, although their new home, the Colville Indian Reservation, was far from their homeland in the Wallowa Valley.
Life in the Inland Empire
Joseph continued to lead his band of Wallowa for another 25 years, at times coming into conflict with the leaders of other 11 tribes living on the reservation. Chief Moses of the Sinkiuse Columbia in particular resented having to cede a portion of his lands people's lands to Joseph's people, who had "made war on the Great Father".
In general, however, the relocated Nez Perce made few enemies in their new home, and even kept friendly relations with their white neighbors.
Helen Hunt Jackson recorded one early Oregon settler's tale of his encounter with Chief Joseph in her 1902 Glimpses of California and the Missions:
"Why I got lost once, an' I came right on [Chief Joseph's] camp before I knowed it . . . 't was night, 'n' I was kind o' creepin' along cautious, an' the first thing I knew there was an Injun had me on each side, an' they jest marched me up to Jo's tent, to know what they should do with me ... Well, Jo, he took up a torch, a pine knot he had burnin', and he held it close't up to my face, and looked me up an' down, an' down an' up; an' I never flinched; I jest looked him up an' down 's good 's he did me; 'n' then he set the knot down, 'n' told the men it was all right, --I was`tum tum;' that meant I was good heart; 'n' they gave me all I could eat, 'n' a guide to show me my way, next day, 'n' I could n't make Jo nor any of 'em take one cent. I had a kind o' comforter o' red yarn, I wore round my neck; an' at last I got Jo to take that, jest as a kind o' momento."
The Chief Joseph band of Nez Perce Indians, who still live on the Colville Reservation, bear his name in tribute to their prestigious leader.
References
- Chief Joseph. Chief Joseph's Own Story. Originally published in the North American Review, April 1879.
- Jackson, Helen Hunt. Glimpses of California and the missions. Boston: Little, Brown, & company, 1923.
External links
- U.S. Treasury
- U.S. Library of Congress Today in History: October 5
- Friends of the Bear Paw, Big Hole & Canyon Creek Battlefields
- PBS biographyca:Chief Joseph
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