Chief Joseph II - Conclusion

Cont. from last week

(By Dan R. Conway)

Originally published in the Hysham Echo May 12, 1927)

Peaceable to the Last

In his later years, Joseph was not a disturber; he remembered his promise and he kept it. He kept it indeed better than many a paroled white would have done; it was lived up to in spirit as well as in letter. Not only did he refrain from making any trouble himself, but his councils were always for peace. He realized the hopelessness of a struggle against the white invasion and he adopted the course that seemed to him wisest.

Charlot a Malcontent

The case of the Nez Percés was almost an exact parallel with the treatment which Chief Charlot and his Saleeshes of the Bitter Root valley received from the government. Charlot, however, refrained from any act of violence against the whites. When Joseph sent Charlot an invitation to participate in the march out of the country, the latter refused. But Charlot remained sullen and morose, a perpetual trouble breeder on the reservation; a chronic malcontent. Joseph, on the other hand, became a model Indian after his brief struggle against the inevitable had been decided.

When Charlot had his famous conference with Senator Vest, Major Martin Maginnis and others regarding his proposed departure from the Bitter Root valley, he referred to this incident. He said that his father, Victor, had welcomed Lewis and Clark and helped them on their journey; that during the intervening years no white man had been killed by the Flathead Indians in anything that looked like hostility; that recently when his kinsman Joseph of the Nez Percés had come over the mountains and asked him to join with him in his war upon the whites, he told him that he would not do so. He said that he told Joseph he would not join the whites, and that so far as the Saleeshes were concerned, Joseph might march through the valley if he would do so peaceably; but that if he took anything belonging to the white men, or even killed a calf, then he (Charlot) would join forces with the white men.

Was Greatest of Indian Leaders

Joseph’s resentment against the whites was of the same nature as that of Charlot, but it found vent in a different manner. Instead of remaining sullenly in the Wallowa valley, Joseph determined to leave the country entirely. None familiar with the circumstances and events believes that Joseph at any time intended to wage war against the whites. Had he been on the warpath, it would have been a very simple matter for him to slay the soldiers and volunteers who opposed him in Lolo pass. Much later, however, he left the members of this force sleeping and marched quietly around them.

Whatever may be the general opinion held as to the justice of the course pursued by Chief Joseph and as to the righteousness of the cause he tried to uphold, there can be but one opinion regarding the man himself - he was the greatest Indian leader of all times. Print this post