Chief Joseph

Leader of the Nez Perce

(c. 1840-1904)

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-nativeamerican/ChiefJoseph5-500.jpg

"I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed.... The old men are all killed.... 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 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." -- Cheif Joseph

Chief Joseph, know to his tribesmen as Hin-mah-too-Yah-lat-kekt ("Thunder Rolling in the Mountains"), was born in Wallowa Valley, Oregon.  He was one of the leaders of the Nez Perce.

When gold was discovered on the nearby  Clearwater Riverin the 1860s, the "Christian" branch (the branch of the Nez Perce that sided with the whites) signed a treaty selling 7 million acres of their land under the advice of Lawyer, another Nez Perce leader.  Chief Joseph and many other Nez Perce (the "non-Christian" branch) never acknowleged this treaty, a common practice in Native American tribes due to their lack of a formal centralized government.  In a treaty of 1873, Chief Joseph confirmed the Nez Perce rights to the Wallowa Valley.  U.S. Army commander, General Oliver Otis Howard, however, ordered the Nez Perce to a reservation in Lapwai, Idaho within 30 days in 1877.  Just before they reached the reservation, a group of young men decided to take revenge and caused a two day raid that killed 21 whites.  In response Captain David Perry led a force against the "non-Christian" Nez Perce in the Battle of White Bird Canyon.  33 of Perry's men were killed while Chief Joseph did not loose a single soldier.  The Nez Perce fled more than 1,000 miles in attempt to reach Canada through the Bitterroot Mountains, what would become Yellowstone National Park, and a large part of Montana fighting successful small-scale battles at Clearwater, Big Hole, and Canyon Creek.  At Bear Paw Mountain, a few miles from the Canadian border, General Nelson A. Miles caught up with Chief Joseph and his followers.  Joseph surrendered to Miles givining one of the most famous quotes in Native American history (written above) after Miles promised the return of the Wallowa Valley to the Nez Perce. 

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A memorial at the cite of the Battle at Bear Paw

The government, however, woul not allow the Nez Perce to return to Wallowa Valley.  They were taken to a reservation in Bismarck, North Dakota and then moved to several other reservations throughout the following years.  Chief Joseph spent the rest of his life petitioning the US government for the right to return to their land even going as far as asking Presidents Rutherford Hayes and Theodore Roosevelt.  He died in 1905 after living on various reservations for almost 30 years.

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Page created by:  Kara W

Avon High School, Avon, Indiana

Date created:  3-21-08                                                          http://www.rockymountainroads.com/wyoming001/us-014_us-016_us-020_wb_app_wy-120_to_wy-296.jpg

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