Chief Joseph: Encyclopedia - Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph (1840–September 21, 1904) was a leader of the Nez Perce tribe of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, noted as a humanitarian and peacemaker for principled resistance to the U.S. federal government's attempts to force the Nez Perce onto an Indian reservation.

An 1863 treaty took away tribal lands and forced the Nez Perce and their leader into resistance. Though Chief Joseph consistently opposed war, when conflict became inevitable he and other leaders led the Nez Percé on a courageous retreat in 1877 for more than 1000 miles (1600 km) through Montana and Idaho. After a five-day siege only 30 miles (50 km) from the Canadian border, he surrendered, famously saying:

In his final years, Chief Joseph spoke eloquently of the injustice of American policy toward his people and held out hope that one day freedom and equality might come for Native Americans.

Chief Joseph - Early life

Chief Joseph was born in the Wallowa Valley of what is now northeastern Oregon. He was given the name Hinmaton-Yalaktit (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt), which means "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain." However, he was known as Joseph or Joseph the Younger because his father had been baptized Joseph by a Catholic missionary in 1838.

In Glimpses of California and the Missions (1902), Helen Hunt Jackson recorded one early Oregon settler's tale of his encounter with Chief Joseph:

Chief Joseph - As chief

In 1871, Chief Joseph succeeded his father as chief of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce. He inherited a volatile situation because some Nez Perce resisted the federal government's efforts to force them into a small Idaho reservation one-tenth the size of their native lands. In 1877, after U.S. Army cavalry threatened to attack, Chief Joseph and other leaders began the journey to the reservation. On a night that Chief Joseph was away from camp, a young Nez Perce man and his friends, avenging the killing of his father, attacked and killed a white settler. Immediately, the cavalry began to pursue Chief Joseph and other Nez Perce, and although he opposed war, he sided with the war leaders.

In 1873, Chief Joseph negotiated with the federal government to ensure his people could stay on their land in the Wallowa Valley as stipulated in 1855 and 1863 land treaties with the U.S. government. But in 1877, the government reversed policy, and General Oliver O. Howard threatened to attack if the Nez Perce did not relocate to an Idaho reservation. Chief Joseph reluctantly agreed.

As they began their journey to Idaho, Chief Joseph learned that three young Nez Perce men, enraged at the loss of their homeland, had massacred a band of white settlers. Fearing retaliation, the chief began what is now known as one of the greatest American military retreats.

Chief Joseph - Retreat and surrender

With 2000 U.S. soldiers in pursuit, Chief Joseph led fewer than 300 Nez Perce towards freedom at the Canadian border. For over three months, the Nez Perce outmaneuvered and battled their pursuers traveling over 1000 miles (1600 km) 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 guard, 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 the place now close to Chinook in Blaine County). It was here he gave his famous speech, interperted 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."

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 a reservation in the Pacific Northwest, still far from their homeland in the Wallowa Valley.

Chief Joseph died in 1904, still in exile, on the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington over his campfire. The doctor listed his cause of death as a broken heart.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Chief Joseph", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki