Chief Joseph

Native American leader

• Born: March 3, 1840
• Birthplace: Lapwai Preserve, Wallowa Valley, northeastern Oregon
• Died: September 21, 1904
• Place of death: Colville Indian Reservation, Washington

The leader of his people in the Nez Perce War of 1877, Chief Joseph attempted to retain for his people the freedoms enjoyed prior to white American interest in their lands. Although he ultimately failed to preserve his people’s independence, he became an enduring symbol of the fortitude and resilience of Native Americans.

Early Life

Chief Joseph (Heinmot Tooyalakekt in his native tongue, which translates as Thunder-Rolling-in-the-Mountains) was born to Old Joseph (Tuekakas) and Asenoth. His exact birthdate is unknown, but he was baptized Ephraim on April 12, 1840, by the Reverend Mr. Henry H. Spalding, who maintained a Presbyterian mission at Lapwai in the heart of Nez Perce country. This area, which comprises parts of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, contains some of the most desirable land in the United States. As such, white Americans desired the land upon which the Nez Perce and other bands of Indians lived.

In 1855, the U.S. government greatly reduced the holdings of all tribes and bands in the northwestern United States in a series of treaties at the Council of Walla Walla, called by the governor of the Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens. In those treaties, the Neemeepoo (meaning the people) or Nez Perce (pronounced nez purse) agreed to what amounted to a 50 percent reduction of their territory. The Nez Perce were able to keep this much of their land because the whites were not yet interested in the wild and remote country of west-central Idaho and northwestern Oregon. The Nez Perce had been exposed to Christianity as early as 1820. The existence of Christian names indicates that many practiced that religion. Chief Joseph was, or was generally believed to have been, baptized and named Ephraim. It would fall to him, a kind and gentle man, to deal with the problems—initially encroachment and then expropriation—which threatened the lands of his fathers.

The troubles of the Nez Perce began in 1861, when gold in quantity was discovered along the Orofino Creek, a tributary of the Clearwater. Old Joseph attempted to keep the prospectors from the land but finally accepted the inevitable and sought to supervise rather than prohibit the activity. This plan failed. Once the area had been opened, many whites entered. In violation of the agreements, and of the treaties of 1855, which prohibited such white encroachments, some whites turned to farming.

The results were surprising. The government, rather than forcing the whites to leave, proposed an additional reduction of the Nez Perce lands. The federal government indicated that as much as 75 percent of the holdings should be made available for white settlement. Old Joseph refused; his refusal apparently split the Nez Perce peoples. Some of them agreed to the reduction. Aleiya, called Lawyer by the whites, signed the agreement that the Joseph faction of the Nez Perce would refer to as the thief treaty. Hereafter, the Nez Perce were divided into the treaty and nontreaty bands. Old Joseph refused to leave the Wallowa Valley, where his nontreaty Nez Perce bred and raised the Appaloosa horse.

Old Joseph died in 1871, and, at his parting, he reminded his eldest son, Heinmot Tooyalakekt, or Young Joseph,

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.… This country holds your father’s bones. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.

Chief Joseph was as adamant in his refusal to sell or part with the land as had been his father, but he realized the power and inconstancy of the U.S. government. In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant issued an executive order dividing the area that the whites were settling between the whites and the Nez Perce. In 1875, however, Grant opened the entire region to white settlement. In 1876, he sent a commission to see Chief Joseph. The decision had been made to offer Joseph’s band of nontreaty Nez Perce land in the Oklahoma Indian Territory for all of their Idaho holdings.

What transpired as a result of this decision has been termed by Jacob P. Dunn, Jr., in Massacres in the Mountains (1886), “the meanest, most contemptible, least justifiable thing that the United States was ever guilty of.…” Chief Joseph refused the offer to move to Oklahoma. General Oliver Otis Howard arrived with orders to enforce the presidential decision. General Howard proposed a swift compliance with those orders. Joseph realized that his Nez Perce could not long stand against a government and an army determined to take their land and move them. Accordingly, a council of chiefs, including Joseph’s younger brother Ollokot (a fine warrior), White Bird, Looking Glass , and the Wallowa prophet, Toohoolhoolzote, reached the decision to go to Canada rather than to Oklahoma. General Howard, however, declared that “the soldiers will be there to drive you onto the reservation.…”

Life’s Work

The Nez Perce War of 1877 is misnamed. It would be more appropriate to label it a chase. It is the story of Chief Joseph’s attempt to lead his people to the safety of Canada, where the geography and the climate were more similar to the traditional lands than were those of Oklahoma. The United States Army, under orders to deliver the Nez Perce to the Indian Territory, would pursue Chief Joseph’s band during the 111-day war/chase that eventually found Joseph winding over fourteen hundred miles through the mountains. His attempt to elude the military would fail because of nineteenth century technology rather than his lack of ability.

Hostilities began when a member of White Bird’s band of Nez Perce, Wahlitits, wanting to avenge the death of his father at the hands of white men, and two other youths, killed four white men. Apparently, some whites were of the opinion that only a war would guarantee the removal of the Nez Perce from the land, and some of them had been trying for some time to provoke that war. The men killed by Wahlitits had been the first white men killed by Nez Perce in a generation.

Joseph’s reaction to the killings was one of regret and the realization that only flight would preserve his people. General Howard’s reaction was to move immediately not only against White Bird’s people but also against all the nontreaty Nez Perce. The initial engagement on June 17, 1877, was between two troops of the First Cavalry (about ninety men) under Captains David Perry and Joel Trimble. The cavalry was accompanied by eleven civilian volunteers. One of those civilian volunteers fired at the Nez Perce truce team. This action led to a short, unplanned, disorganized fight during which the Nez Perce, under Ollokot, killed thirty-four cavalry. (Important also was the capture of sixty-three rifles and many pistols.)

This initial defeat led Howard, fearing a general uprising of all Nez Perce—treaty and nontreaty alike—to call for reinforcements. Troops from all over the United States were quickly dispatched, including an infantry unit from Atlanta, Georgia, to the Washington Territory. Joseph’s strategy was to seek protection from the Bitterroot Mountain range, where traditional cavalry tactics would be neutralized. Leading his approximately five hundred women and children and 250 warriors, he moved over the Lolo Trail, crossed the Bitterroots, and then, hoping to avoid detection, moved southward to the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park, which he crossed in August, 1877. Joseph then swung northward into present-day Montana, hoping to reach Canada undetected. Seeking the security of the Bearpaw Mountains, Joseph moved his people as quickly as the women and young could travel. They were not quick enough: The Bearpaws would be the location of the final encounter with the military.

Joseph was not a military strategist; Ollokot was. Joseph urged that they try to reach Canada. Ollokot, Toohoolhoolzote, Looking Glass, and other chiefs preferred to fight. Battles had been joined several times along the route. At the Clearwater (July 11), at Big Hole (August 9-10), at Camas Meadows (August 16), at Canyon Creek (September 13), and at Cows Creek (September 23), sharp engagements were fought. Each resulted in Joseph’s band eluding capture but with irreplaceable losses. The military, meanwhile, was receiving reinforcements in large numbers. Especially important was the arrival of Colonel Nelson Miles with nearly six hundred men, including elements of the Second and Seventh cavalries.

About thirty miles from the Canadian border, the Nez Perce halted, believing that they had succeeded in eluding the army and had the time to rest. Joseph was wrong: The telegraph and the railroad had outflanked him. Colonel Miles caught the Nez Perce unprepared on September 30, on the rolling plains of the Bearpaw Mountains. Joseph’s band, hopelessly outnumbered, held out until October 4. After a hastily convened, makeshift council, Joseph decided to surrender. On October 5, he rode to the headquarters of Miles and General Howard, who had arrived in force the day before, and handed his rifle to Howard, who, in turn, passed it to Colonel Miles—still in command of the operation.

Joseph’s surrender was apparently based upon an assumption that his people could return to the Lapwai. This was not to be. The Nez Perce were loaded onto boxcars and transported to the Oklahoma Indian Territory. In this new climate and country, many of the remaining Nez Perce died. Joseph repeatedly begged for permission to return to the northwestern hunting grounds. Partial success came in 1885, when Joseph was allowed to return with his people to the Colville Reservation in Washington. Thereafter, every attempt on Joseph’s part to effect a return to the Lapwai was unsuccessful. Joseph died on September 21, 1904, on the Colville Indian Reservation.

Significance

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce was a dignified leader of his people. A man who loved the land of his ancestors, he attempted to retain it. His defiance of the U.S. government was a gallant, almost successful, effort. His failure marked the end of the wars of the Northwest and was the last important Indian resistance except for the Battle at Wounded Knee Creek. The removal of the Nez Perce to reservations marked the end of freedom as the American Indians had known it. As Joseph said, “you might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty.”

Bibliography

Allard, William Albert. “Chief Joseph.” National Geographic 151 (March, 1977): 408-434. A well-illustrated, concise, balanced, readily available source.

Andrist, Ralph K. The Long Death: The Last Days of the Plains Indians. New York: Macmillan, 1964. Includes a well-written, sympathetic chapter on the Nez Perce. Especially valuable for detailing the reasons for the decision to go to Canada.

Beal, Merrill D.“I Will Fight No More Forever”: Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1963. A carefully written, well-illustrated account that gives special attention to the hostilities.

Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. A classic study of white-Indian relationships that must be read by the serious student. It contains an excellent account of Chief Joseph and his attempted flight to Canada. White motivation in the contest is perhaps overstated.

Chalmers, Harvey, II. The Last Stand of the Nez Perce: Destruction of a People. New York: Twayne, 1962. Contains a valuable glossary of characters and a balanced account of the hostilities.

Dunn, Jacob P., Jr. Massacres of the Mountains: A History of the Indian Wars of the Far West. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1886. A chapter devoted to what Dunn argues was an injustice committed by the U.S. government. Many later sources rely upon his analysis.

Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Leadership. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1958. One of the few sources that deals with Chief Joseph as an individual. The account of the war is excellent.

Miles, Nelson A. Personal Recollections and Observances. Chicago: Werner, 1896. The final days of the Nez Perce recounted by the officer in the field commanding the United States military. Unsympathetic toward Joseph’s motivation.

Moeller, Bill, and Jan Moeller. Chief Joseph and the Nez Perces: A Photographic History. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press, 1995. Color photos and text depict the places in Idaho and Montana where the Nez Perce Indians camped, followed trials, and sought refuge from government troops between June and October, 1877.

Moulton, Candy. American Heroes: Chief Joseph, Guardian of the People. New York: Forge Books, 2005. Well-documented biography, recounting Chief Joseph’s attempt to lead his people to safety in Canada and his subsequent diplomatic initiatives to regain his people’s homeland.

Park, Edwards. “Big Hole: Still a Gaping Wound to the Nez Perce.” Smithsonian 9 (May, 1978): 92-99. Deals with a serious setback during the great chase of 1877.