Chief Joseph II

The Most Remarkable Indian of All North American Aboriginal Tribesmen; Nez Percés were Peace Loving People, Yet Brave, Fearless and Honest in their Battle for a Cause to Them Most Just. Fiftieth Anniversary of Big Hole Battle to be Commemorated

Cont. from last week

(By Dan R. Conway)

Originally published in the Hysham Echo May 12, 1927

It is just a half century ago that Chief Joseph II. left the Wallowa valley in Idaho in his futile effort to pilot his people out of a country whose government, in his opinion, had treated his people in a shameless manner.

The famous march of the Nez Percés has been the subject of innumerable narratives. Its story is familiar to every school child in the Northwest. Too much cannot be said, however, of the remarkable man who proved himself so capable a leader, and of whom General Nelson A. Miles once said: “He is the whitest Indian I ever knew.”

Cause of Nez Perce Uprising

After the Civil war, Grant and Sherman were the military dictators of the United States. These two dignitaries had become the idols of the north, in consideration of their salient victories which had brought the recent war to a close. There word was law in military circles. And, today, in the northwest, the question arises as often before it has: Did these officials exercise their power to the very best advantage in treating with the Indian tribes? The story of the rebellion of Chief Joseph against the confiscation of the lands of the Nez Percés by General Grant; the story of the repudiation by General Sherman of the terms made by General Miles to Chief Joseph, following the latter’s surrender at the Battle of the Bear Paws, would indicate that these men might have abused their power.

The white race, and more especially those who were living in Montana at the time of the Nez Perce uprising, are inclined to blame Chief Joseph for the bloody war which he waged against the settlers of Montana in 1877. As a matter of fact, however, Joseph was fighting for a principle - an ideal which was as sound as any patriotic principle which ever inspired a soldier of the United States.

Nez Percés a Superior Tribe

From the time of Lewis and Clark, up to the days when the government began to play a fast and loose game with the Nez Perce nation, that tribe had always been staunch friends of the white people. The Nez Percés were a superior race of aborigines. They were devoted to peace and were praised by every explorer and settler who has passed over the Oregon Trail, as well as by the early missionaries, Fathers DeSmet and Ravalli and Marcus Whitman.

The story of the Nez Percés was much similar to that of the Flatheads (Saleeshes). Just as General Garfield had misrepresented to the government his negotiations with the Bitter Root valley Indians, claiming that Chief Charlot had surrendered the rights of the Saleeshes to that valley, when he had not. Early day commissioners sent out to treat with the Nez Percés made a treaty with sub-chiefs and head men who did not by any means represent the entire nation.

It was this plan of pursuing the course of least resistance - a plan too much in vogue by commissioners endeavoring to make a name for themselves in those days - that was the direct cause of the Nez Perce uprising. A group of sub-chiefs were cajoled into signing away the rights of the entire Nez Perce nation; and when the matter was reported to the tribe, the greater portion of the tribesmen resented it bitterly.

Broken Promises

Governor Isaac N. Stevens of Washington territory negotiated the first treaty with the Nez Percés in 1855. It was a liberal treaty confirming the rights of the Indian nation to hunting grounds in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. A second treaty was made in 1863. By this agreement, the fertile valleys of the Wallowa and Imnaha were relinquished by the Indians. The valleys in question were occupied by a tribe of the Nez Perce nation of which Joseph I. was chief, as had been his father before him. Old Joseph and his followers who were the ones who should have been consulted, refused to recognize the treaty. They were the original owners of the land. The government held that the agreement with the whole nation was binding on Joseph’s Nez Percés. On the other hand, the old warrior leader held that the Indians not under him and not residing in the valleys which the treaty ceded to the United States had no right to sign away the rights of his people.

Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph is represented as being a royal blooded Indian, whose forebears had held high place in the council of his nation, for many generations. The dissatisfied Indians rallied around him. The land that had been clandestinely ceded to the United States government was the home of his childhood and his people from time immemorial. At a great council of the dissenters Joseph made a speech in the course of which he said:
“A man who would not love the land of his father and his mother is worse than a beast. Our brothers have betrayed us. The men who spoke for the Great White Father of the palefaces should have known that they were doing something which was not right. The white people have much power, but we must fight them if they attempt to take our homes away from us.”

This cry of Joseph, the red patriot, went up and down the land of the Nez Percés. Many of the chiefs and head men who had assented to this treaty left the country of the nation, so bitter was the feeling against them.

Death of Chief Joseph

This controversy continued over a number of years. In 1872 Old Joseph died and on his deathbed, he called his son, Young Joseph, to his side, and said:
“My son, my body is returning to 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 the 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 mother.”

The government, unable to induce the Indians to leave, further complicated matters by giving the “Non-Treaty Nez Percés,” as Chief Joseph II. and his followers were called, permission to remain in Wallowa valley.
Another Broken Promise

In 1873, a commission decided that the non-treaty Nez Percés were without their rights, and that they must leave the country in which they had always lived.

Along about this time, encouraged by the attitude of the government, settlers began to locate in Wallowa valley. Joseph went to them and explained his position. He told them that the treaty by which the land had been ceded to the United States had been repudiated by the Nez Perce nation. He warned them that there would be war if they remained. Instead of heeding this warning, they encouraged other settlers to come.

Grant was then president of the United States. His training had been militant. He answered the Indians by proclaiming the Wallowa valley a part of the public domain of the United States, and open to settlement.
Naturally enough, this proclamation brought more settlers. Joseph now realized that he must make his fight for his people, or submit to what he and they considered a rank injustice. He issued an ultimatum that if the white settlers did not leave at once he and his followers would go on the war path.

Settlers Arrive in Valley

The settlers, feeling themselves secure in the attitude of President Grant, remained. The Indians began to commit petty depredations. Settlers in unprotected places began to feel the hand of the Indian. The settlers, alarmed, asked for military protection. The government sent a troop of cavalry into the valley. This, the Indians considered an act of war.
The non-treaty Nez Percés were members of a religious order known to the government as “The Dreamers.” The doctrine of the Dreamers was that the Great Spirit had made the earth complete, and that it was sinful to disturb it by cultivation. The Dreamers, it is said, were also opposed to churches and school as disturbing the natural conditions of things. They also believed that a leader would come who would show them how to resist the encroachments of the whites, which had long ago begun to alarm the Indians. This leader was to be endowed with divine power, and would bring the spirits of all the dead Nez Percés back to life, to help the nation fight for their rights, if necessary.

Too-Hul-Hul-Sote

The head of this religious order was a fierce old medicine man named Too-hul-hul-sote. He had come into power since the trouble had arisen between the Nez Percés and the government. As high priest of the order, he was the implacable foe of the whites. Their ascendancy meant, of course, that his cult would go to pieces, and he was always for war. Most of the Nez Percés believed in him and his doctrines were held sacred. He had almost as much power as did Chief Joseph.
General O. O. Howard was sent out to try and placate Joseph. He took the position that the Wallowa valley was a legitimate possession of the United States; that the army would protect the settlers and force Joseph and his followers to go to the reservation allotted to them. Then came the order that the non-treaty Nez Percés must vacate the valley within one year. Joseph finally became convinced that the only thing for the Indians to do was to submit to the whites. He arrived at this conclusion very reluctantly, because he loved the fair land in which his people had always lived, and because his father and his mother were buried there. He set about to arrange for the removal of the tribe.

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