CHIEF JOSEPH GOES TO WAR (1877)
AND OUT-GENERALS THE UNITED STATES ARMY
After Colonel Nelson A. Miles of the Fifth Infantry had driven Sitting
Bull and Chief Gall of the Sioux into Canada and his troops were trying
to stop their raids back, at present Fort Keogh near Miles City on the
Yellowstone River in southeastern Montana he received word of another
Indian war.
The friendly Pierced Noses of Oregon had broken the peace chain. They
had crossed the mountains and were on their way north, for Canada.
That the Pierced Noses had taken the war trail was astonishing news.
For one hundred years they had held the hand of the white man. Their
proudest boast said: "The Nez Perces have never shed white blood."
They spoke truly. During the seventy years since the two captains
Lewis and Clark had met them in 1805, only one white man had been
killed by a Pierced Nose. That was not in war, but in a private
quarrel between the two.
Hunters, traders and missionaries had always been helped by the Pierced
Noses. The white man's religion had been favored. The Good Book had
been prized.
Young Chief Joseph was now the leader of the Pierced Noses upon the war
trail. His Indian name was Hin-ma-ton
Ya-lat-kit--Thunder-rising-from-the-water-over-the-land. But his
father had been christened Joseph by the missionaries; so the son was
called Young Chief Joseph.
A tall, commanding, splendid-looking Indian he had grown to be, at
forty years of age. He was every inch a chief, and had a noble face.
His people were the Lower Nez Perces, who lived in the beautiful
Wallowa Valley--their Valley of the Winding Waters, in northeastern
Oregon. Here they raised many horses, and hunted, but put in few
crops. Old Chief Joseph had believed that the earth should not be
disturbed; the people should eat only what it produced of itself. The
earth was their mother.
He believed also that nobody owned any part of the earth. The earth
had been given to all, by the Great Creator. Everybody had a right to
use what was needed.
Twenty years ago, or in 1855, Old Chief Joseph had signed a paper, by
which the United States agreed to let the Pierced Noses alone on their
wide lands of western Idaho, and eastern Oregon and Washington.
But it was seen that the Pierced Noses did not cultivate the better
portion of this country; the white men wanted to plough the Valley of
Winding Waters; and eight years later another treaty was made, which
cut out the Winding Waters. It narrowed the Nez Perces to the Lapwai
reservation in Idaho.
Old Chief Joseph did not sign this treaty. Other chiefs signed, for
the Nez Perces. The United States thought that this was enough, as it
considered the Pierced Noses to be one nation. The Valley of the
Winding Waters was said to be open to white settlers.
The Old Chief Joseph Pierced Noses continued to live there, just the
same. They asserted that they had never given it up, and that the
Upper Pierced Noses had no right to speak for the Lower Pierced Noses.
As Young Chief Joseph afterwards explained:
"Suppose a white man comes to me and says: 'Joseph, I like your horses
and I want to buy them.' I say to him: 'No; my horses suit me; I will
not sell them.' Then he goes to my neighbor, and says to him: 'Joseph
has some good horses. I want them, but he refuses to sell.' My
neighbor answers: 'Pay me the money and I will sell you Joseph's
horses.' The white man returns to me and says: 'Joseph, I have bought
your horses and you must let me have them.' That is the way our lands
were bought."
When Old Joseph died, Young Joseph held his hand and listened to his
words:
My son, my body is returning to my 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 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 your mother.
Young Joseph promised.
"A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild
animal," he said.
After that he was careful never to accept any presents from the United
States.
Even before the treaty of 1863 which was supposed to cover the Winding
Waters valley, the white men had invaded the Pierced Nose country.
Gold had been discovered in Idaho. In 1861 the white man's town of
Lewiston had been laid out, among the Nez Perces--and there it was,
without permission.
The Black Hills were being taken from the Sioux, in the same way.
Now trouble occurred between the Indians and the whites in the Valley
of the Winding Waters, also. The Government started in to buy the
settlers' claims, so that the Pierced Noses might remain undisturbed,
but Congress did not appropriate the money.
In order to force the Indians off, the settlers stole their horses, and
their cattle; Indians were whipped, and killed. Chief Joseph's brother
was killed. The murderer was not brought to trial, because Joseph
would not allow his people to appear in court.
"I have decided to let him escape and enjoy life," said Joseph. "I
will not take his life for the one he took. I do not want anything in
payment for what he did. I pronounce the sentence that he shall live."
All that the Nez Perces asked, was that the white men get out.
Among the Indians of this Columbia River region there had sprung up a
prophet, as in the days of Tecumseh. His name was Smo-hal-la. He
preached the doctrine that the land belonged to the Indians, and that
the red man was the real child of the Great Spirit. A day was nearing,
when the Great Spirit would repeople the earth with Indians, and the
white race would be driven out. In the meantime the red men must live
in their own way, and have nothing to do with the white men. They must
not dig into the body of their "mother," the earth.
The followers of Smohalla were called Dreamers. Chief Joseph was a
member of the Dreamers: so were many of his band.
As the Chief Joseph people would not come in upon the Lapwai
reservation, and the missionaries and Indian agent and soldiers could
not persuade them, General Oliver O. Howard, who commanded the Military
Department of the Columbia, met in council with them, at Fort Lapwai,
in April and May, 1876.
General Howard was a brave soldier who had lost his right arm in the
battle of Fair Oaks, during the Civil War. He was a kind, just man,
one whom the Apaches and other tribes greatly trusted; but he could do
little with the stubborn Pierced Noses.
They usually dressed like white people. When they came to the council
they were painted, and wore buckskins and blankets, according to the
custom of the Dreamers.
Chief Joseph finally appeared. His younger brother, Ollicut, whom he
dearly loved, was here. So were Hush-hush-cute, chief of the Palouse
tribe who mingled with the Pierced Noses in friendship; and Sub-Chiefs
Looking Glass and White Bird; and old Too-hul-hul-so-te, a Too-at, or
Drummer Dreamer chief.
In the principal councils Too-hul-hul-so-te was the most out-spoken,
for the Pierced Noses. Chief Joseph and Ollicut his brother were more
quiet. But General Howard and Toohulhulsote had several tilts.
The white chiefs stated that the Nez Perces were to go upon the Lapwai
reservation; then they would be given the privilege of hunting and
fishing in the Winding Waters country.
"The earth is our mother. When the earth was made, there were no marks
or lines placed upon it," grunted the surly, broad-shouldered
Toohulhulsote. "The earth yields enough, of itself. It is not to be
disturbed by ploughs. It is not to be bought or sold. It carries its
own chieftain-ship. Nobody can sell possession of it. We never have
made any trade. Part of the Indians gave up their land. We never did.
The Great Spirit made the earth as it is, and as he wanted it, and he
made a part of it for us to live upon. I don't see where you get the
right to say we shall not live where he placed us."
"You have said twenty times that the earth is your mother," replied
General Howard, growing angry. "Let us hear no more about it, but come
to business."
"Who are you, that you ask us to talk and then tell me I sha'n't talk?"
retorted the saucy old Toohulhulsote. "Are you the Great Spirit? Did
you make the world? Did you make the sun? Did you make the rivers to
run for us to drink? Did you make the grass to grow? Did you make all
these things, that you talk to us as though we were boys? If you did,
then you have the right to talk as you do."
"But," argued General Howard, "you know very well that the Government
has fixed a reservation and that the Indian must go upon it."
"What person pretends to divide the land and put me on it?" growled old
Toohulhulsote.
"I am the man," General Howard answered. "I stand here for the
President."
"The Indians may do as they like, but I am not going on the
reservation," announced Toohulhulsote.
His words were causing much excitement and bad feeling, and General
Howard ordered him arrested. The young men murmured among themselves,
and would have begun war at once by rescuing him; but Chief Joseph
spoke to them and quieted them.
Toohulhulsote was kept locked up for five days. Meanwhile Chief Joseph
had resolved to permit no war.
"I said in my heart," related Joseph, "that rather than have war I
would give up my country. I would rather give up my father's grave. I
would give up everything, rather than have the blood of white men on
the hands of my people."
Thirty days was named as the time within which he must gather his
people and goods and remove to the reservation. He counseled everybody
to obey. When Toohulhulsote came home he urged the Nez Perces men to
fight, and not be driven like dogs from the land where they were born;
but Joseph stood with a strong heart.
The time seemed too short for moving so many families, their horses and
cattle. Still, he worked hard, and all was going smoothly, when
without warning some bad white men raided the gathered cattle, and
killed one of the herders.
This aroused the young men, again. A grand council of the Pierced
Noses met, and talked war and peace both. Chief Joseph talked peace.
He was very anxious to get his people into the reservation before more
killings took place. The thirty days were almost up.
Then, on the very last day, or June 13, his young men broke away from
him. There was one, whose father had been killed by the settlers.
There were the young man's father's relatives. There were two Indians
who had been whipped.
The young man rode away from the council, vowing war. He and his
friends went out; they killed the white murderer, and others; they came
back and shouted to the council:
"Why do you sit here like women? The war has already begun."
So it had. Joseph and Ollicut were not here, but Chief White Bird
hastened about, crying:
"All must join now. There is blood. You will be punished if you stay
back."
More went out. The man who had whipped the two Indians was killed. A
dozen of the settlers were killed. Chief Joseph found that war had
been declared; plenty of ammunition had been collected without his
knowing it; there was no use in any peace talk now.
He tried to make his people agree not to injure more settlers. Then he
moved the camp to White Bird Canyon, at the Salmon River in Idaho just
across from the northeast corner of Oregon.
They did not have long to wait. General Howard at once sent two troops
of the First Cavalry against him. Troop F was commanded by Captain
David Perry, and First Lieutenant Edward Russell Theller of the
Twenty-first Infantry; Troop H was commanded by Captain J. G. Trimble
and First Lieutenant William B. Parnell. The two troops numbered
ninety men. Ten settlers joined them, so that the whole number was one
hundred.
Chief Joseph and Chief White Bird his assistant had sixty warriors. At
dawn of June 17 Ollicut, through a spy-glass, saw the soldiers entering
the narrow canyon.
Ollicut and White Bird wished to cross over the Salmon River with the
women and children, and fight from the other side.
"No, we will fight them here," said Joseph.
He had never fought a battle. The soldiers and settlers did not expect
him to do much; he himself did not know what he could do; but he was a
born general, he had watched the white soldiers drill, and, as he
explained: "The Great Spirit puts it into the heart and head of man to
know how to defend himself."
Now he stowed the women and children in a safe place, and posted his
warriors. White Bird commanded the right flank; he, the left. He
cleverly seized upon the high ground on the broken sides of the canyon.
The soldiers rode in, by column of twos, until at the wide spot they
changed to column of fours. Chief Joseph's men suddenly fired.
Captain Perry used all his military skill, but in short order he was
thoroughly defeated.
Joseph missed not a point. No white man could have done better. He
threatened the right flank--Captain Perry hastened men to strengthen it
and then White Bird turned the left flank. The volunteers ran away,
Chief Joseph grabbed the best position; now he had the soldiers under
his thumb, and they retreated helter-skelter.
He cut off the rear guard, and every one in it was killed fighting.
Captain Perry had worked hard to rally his men. No use. The Chief
Joseph men pressed furiously.
The actual battle had occupied only a few minutes. The soldiers lost
Lieutenant Theller and thirty-two men shot dead, out of the ninety;
seven were wounded. The volunteers lost four men. The Pierced Noses
did not try to take any scalps.
Chief Joseph's warriors pursued for twelve miles, and quit. During the
battle his wife was presented by the Great Spirit with a little
daughter. So now he had a baby to look out for.
Captain Perry was much mortified by the easy victory over him. The
Pierced Noses of Joseph and White Bird rejoiced. They had done better
than they had expected. The soldiers had proved to be not very great.
Joseph had planned to take his people only beyond the Bitter Root
Mountains of northeastern Idaho, by the Pierced Noses'
Road-to-the-buffalo, and stay in the Powder River country of Montana
until he might come to terms with the United States. He was willing to
risk the Sioux.
But General Howard did not sleep. He summoned troops from all his wide
department of the Columbia. The telegraph carried the word into
California, and down into Arizona.
When he had two hundred soldiers he led them, himself. Chief Joseph
ferried his women and children over the roaring Salmon River on skin
rafts towed by swimming ponies, and put the river between him and
General Howard.
General Howard viewed the position, and was puzzled. His rival general
was a genius in defense. He crossed the river, to the attack. Chief
Joseph dodged him, crossed the river farther north, and circling
southward cut his trail and his communications with Fort Lapwai; fell
upon Captain S. G. Whipple's First Cavalry, which was in his
path--surrounded it, wiped out Lieutenant Sevier Rains and ten
cavalrymen, scattered the reinforcements, and passed on, for the
Road-to-the-buffalo.
General Howard heard that he had been side-stepped, and that the Nez
Perces were beyond his lines. With almost six hundred men, two
field-pieces and a Gatling gun he followed at best speed. The "treaty"
or friendly Pierced Noses aided him; so did the Bannock Indians.
Chief Joseph had been joined by his friend Chief Looking Glass. Now he
had two hundred and fifty warriors--also four hundred and fifty women
and children, two thousand horses, as many cattle, and much lodge
baggage. In all the history of wars, no general carried a greater
burden.
On July 11 he turned at the banks of the south Clearwater, in northern
Idaho, to give battle again. He had thrown up dirt entrenchments, and
was waiting for General Howard's infantry, cavalry, artillery and
scouts.
General Howard formed line. He had graduated with honors at West Point
in 1854, and had won high rank in the Civil War. But Joseph wellnigh
defeated him--nearly captured his supply train, did capture a spring
and keep him from the drinking water; and had it not been for
reinforcements coming in and creating two attacks at once on the
Pierced Noses' position, he would have made General Howard retire.
The battle lasted two days. It was really a victory for Chief Joseph.
"I do not think that I had to exercise more thorough generalship during
the Civil War," General Howard confessed.
Chief Joseph withdrew his people in good order. General Howard in
desperation sent the cavalry, under Chief-of-Staff E. C. Mason, to find
the Pierced Noses and hold them. Colonel Mason did not find them--they
found _him_, and he was very glad to return in haste to General Howard.
The Joseph people were now safely in the Lo-lo Trail, or the
Road-to-the-buffalo, that wound up the Bitter Root Range, and down on
the other side. On this trail the two captains Lewis and Clark had
almost perished. What with the great forest trees fallen crisscross,
the dense brush and the sharp tumbled rocks, no trail could be rougher.
Over and under and through the trees and rocks Chief Joseph forced his
women and children, his ponies and cattle and baggage. Behind him he
left blood and disabled horses and cows. One hundred and fifty miles
behind him he left the toiling, panting soldiers, whose forty axe-men
were constantly at work clearing a passage for the artillery and the
packs.
Even at that, the soldiers marched sixteen miles a day; but the Pierced
Noses marched faster.
The telegraph was swifter still. Fort Missoula, at the east end of the
trail, had been notified. Captain C. C. Rawn of the Seventh Infantry
hastily fortified the pass down, with fifty regulars and one hundred
volunteers. Chief Joseph side-stepped him also, left him waiting, and
by new trails turned south down the Bitter Root Valley on the east side
of the mountains! The Bitter Root Valley was well settled. The
Pierced Noses molested no ranches or towns. They traded, as they went,
for supplies.
Colonel John Gibbon, who had campaigned against Sitting Bull, now took
up the chase. Chief Joseph did not know about Colonel Gibbon's troops,
and made camp on the Big Hole River, near the border in south-western
Montana. He was preparing lodge-poles, to take to the buffalo country.
Here, at dawn of August 9, Colonel Gibbon with two hundred regulars and
volunteers surprised him completely. A storm of bullets swept his
lodges, before his people were astir. Everybody dived for safety.
Some of the warriors left their guns. The white soldiers charged into
the camp. All was confusion; all was death--but the warriors rallied.
In twenty minutes the white soldiers were destroying the camp with
fire. In an hour they were fighting for their lives. The Pierced
Noses had not fled, as Indians usually fled in a surprise; they had
stayed, had surrounded the camp place, and were riddling the soldiers'
lines.
The squaws and boys helped. On the other side, Colonel Gibbon himself
used a rifle. He ordered his troops into the timber. The Chief Joseph
people rushed into their camp, packed up under hot fire, and bundled
the women and children and loose horses to safety. The warriors
remained.
The soldiers threw up entrenchments. Colonel Gibbon was wounded. The
Indians captured his field-piece, and a pack mule loaded with two
thousand rounds of rifle ammunition. They disabled the cannon and
drove off the mule. They fired the grass, and only a change of wind
saved the soldiers from being driven into the open.
All that day and the next day the battle lasted. At dusk of August 9
Colonel Gibbon had sent out couriers, with call for reinforcements.
"Hope you will hurry to our relief," he appealed, to General Howard.
Couriers rode to the Montana forts, also. The whole country was being
stirred. Even Arizona was getting troops ready.
This night of August 10 Chief Joseph learned from one of his scouts who
had been posted on the back trail, that General Howard was hurrying to
the rescue. So he withdrew his people again, to make another march.
He had lost heavily. Eighty men, women and children were dead. Out of
one hundred and ninety men in the battle of the Big Hole, Colonel
Gibbon had lost sixty-nine in killed and wounded, including six
officers.
But the white men could easily get more soldiers; Chief Joseph could
get no more warriors. He decided to join with Sitting Bull's Sioux, in
Canada.
Canada was a long way; maybe a thousand miles. General Howard and
Colonel Gibbon pursued. Joseph crossed the mountains again, into the
southward. He veered east for the Yellowstone National Park. On the
road he found two hundred and fifty fresh ponies. General Howard sent
Lieutenant G. B. Bacon with cavalry to cut in front of him and defend a
pass; and camped, himself, for a short rest, on the Camas Meadows, one
day's march behind the enemy.
Chief Joseph turned on him, deceived his sentries with a column of
fours that looked like Lieutenant Bacon's men coming back, and ran off
all of General Howard's pack mules.
"I got tired of General Howard, and wanted to put him afoot," said
Chief Joseph.
And he almost did it; for had not the cavalry horses been picketed
close in, they would have been stampeded, too.
General Howard had to wait for mules from Virginia City. Lieutenant
Bacon wearied of watching the pass; left it--and Chief Joseph marched
through, into the Yellowstone Park.
Now Colonel Miles, at Fort Keogh, far in the east, had been notified.
He sent out Colonel S. D. Sturgis and six companies of the fighting
Seventh Cavalry, with Crow scouts, to head Joseph off.
Colonel Sturgis made fast time to the southwest. But Chief Joseph
fooled him; pretended to go in one direction and took another, leaving
the Seventh Cavalry forty miles at one side.
Colonel Sturgis obtained fresh horses from General Howard, and started
in chase. On September 17 he came up with Chief Joseph's rear guard,
captured several hundred ponies and sent back word to General Howard
that there was to be a decisive battle.
General Howard hurried. He marched all night. When he got to the
battle-field he found only the Seventh Cavalry there, with three killed
and eleven wounded, and everybody exhausted. Chief Joseph was marching
on, north, in a great half circle. Somebody else must head him off.
General Howard sent a dispatch to Colonel Miles.
"The Nez Perces have left us hopelessly in the rear. Will you take
action to intercept them?"
From Fort Keogh on the Yellowstone, one hundred and fifty miles
eastward, Colonel Miles sallied out. It was a relay race by the white
chiefs. He took four mounted companies of the Fifth Infantry, three
companies of the Seventh Cavalry, three companies of the Second
Cavalry, thirty Cheyenne and Sioux scouts and some white scouts, a
Hotchkiss machine gun, a twelve-pounder Napoleon field-piece, a long
wagon train guarded by infantry, and a pack train of mules.
A steamboat was ordered to ascend the Missouri, and meet the troops
with more supplies. Telegraph, steamboats, trained soldiers,
supplies--all the military power of the United States was fighting
Chief Joseph.
Joseph reached the Missouri River first, at Cow Island. There was a
fort here, guarding a supply depot. He seized the depot, burned it,
and leaving the fort with three of its thirteen men killed, he crossed
the river.
Canada was close at hand. Pretty soon he thought that he had crossed
the line, and in the Bear Paw Mountains he sat down, to rest. He had
many wounded to care for; his women and children were worn out. He had
marched about two thousand miles and had fought four big battles.
"I sat down," said Joseph, "in a fat and beautiful country. I had won
my freedom and the freedom of my people. There were many empty places
in the lodges and in the council, but we were in a land where we would
not be forced to live in a place we did not want. I believed that if I
could remain safe at a distance and talk straight to the men sent by
the Great Father, I could get back to the Wallowa Valley and return in
peace. That is why I did not allow my young men to kill and destroy
the white settlers after I began to fight. I wanted to leave a clean
trail, and if there were dead soldiers on it I could not be blamed. I
had sent out runners to find Sitting Bull, to tell him that another
band of red men had been forced to run from the soldiers, and to
propose that we join for defense if attacked. My people were
recovering. I was ready to move on to a permanent camp when, one
morning, Bear Coat and his soldiers came in sight, and stampeded our
horses. Then I knew that I had made a mistake by not crossing into the
country of the Red Coats; also in not keeping the country scouted in my
rear."
For he was not in Canada. The Canada border lay a day's march of
thirty-five miles northward yet. And he had not known anything about
Colonel Miles, the Bear Coat.
Colonel Miles brought three hundred and seventy-five soldiers, and the
cannon. Chief Joseph had already lost almost one hundred of his men
and women. But his brother Ollicut, Chief White Bird, and the Drummer
Dreamer, old Too-hul-hul-so-te, were still with him; and one hundred
and seventy-five warriors.
The first charge of the Bear Coat cavalry, early in this morning of
September 30,1877, scattered the camp and cut off the pony herd. Chief
Joseph was separated from his wife and children. He dashed for them,
through the soldiers. His horse was wounded, his clothes pierced, but
he got to his lodge.
His wife handed him his gun.
"Take it. Fight!"
And fight he did; his people fought. They dug rifle-pits, the same as
white soldiers would. There was fighting for four days. The Bear Coat
lost one fifth of his officers and men. He settled to a close siege,
shooting with his cannon and trying to starve the Pierced Noses. He
was much afraid that Sitting Bull was coming down, and bringing the
Sioux. He sent messages to notify General Terry, in the east, and
General Howard, in the south.
Chief Joseph's heart ached. His brother Ollicut was dead. Old
Toohulhulsote was dead. Looking Glass was dead. Twenty-four others
had been killed, and forty-six were wounded. He had over three hundred
women and children. Of his own family, only his wife and baby were
left to him. Sitting Bull did not come.
"My people were divided about surrendering," he said. "We could have
escaped from the Bear Paw Mountains if we had left our wounded, old
women and children behind. We were unwilling to do this. We had never
heard of a wounded Indian recovering while in the hands of white men.
I could not bear to see my wounded men and women suffer any longer."
So he rode out, on the morning of October 5, and surrendered. General
Howard had arrived, at the end of his long thirteen-hundred-mile chase,
but the surrender was made to Colonel Miles.
Chief Joseph handed over his gun.
"I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is
dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the
young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead. [That
was Ollicut.] 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 to have time to look for my
children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them
among the dead."
He raised his hand high, toward the sun.
"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."
White Bird had taken a company and escaped to Canada. Colonel Miles
promised Chief Joseph that he would ask to have the surrendered people
sent back to the Nez Perces' country. Those were the terms. The
surrendered people numbered eighty-seven men, three hundred and
thirty-one women and children.
"Thus," reported General Sheridan, the head of the army, "has
terminated one of the most extraordinary Indian wars of which there is
any record. The Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that
elicited universal praise; they abstained from scalping, let captive
women go free, did not commit indiscriminate murder of peaceful
families, which is usual, and fought with almost scientific skill,
using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines and field fortifications."
The Government did not send the Chief Joseph Pierced Noses to their own
country. It was claimed that White Bird had broken the terms, by his
escape. At any rate, the Joseph people were kept a long, long time in
Indian Territory. Many of them sickened and died. They were mountain
Indians. They missed their cold streams and their pure air. They fell
away from over four hundred to two hundred and eighty.
Chief Joseph's heart broke utterly. He issued an appeal--his own
story--which was published in the _North American Review_ magazine, in
1879.
"If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in some country
where my people will not die so fast.... Let me be a free man--free to
travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade, where I choose; free
to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers,
free to think and talk and act for myself--and I will obey every law or
submit to the penalty."
Not until 1884 was he permitted to return to the mountains of the
Northwest. The majority of his people were located again in Idaho,
among their kindred. He himself was placed upon another reservation,
near Spokane, Washington.
He pleaded for the Wallowa Valley--his Valley of the Winding Waters;
but that had been settled by the white men. All that he found was his
father's grave. A white man had enclosed it with a picket fence.
Chief Joseph wept.
He lived to a good age. In 1903 he visited the East; he talked with
President Roosevelt and General Miles. He met General Howard. The
next year he exhibited himself in an Indian show at the St. Louis fair.
That hurt his pride. He was ashamed to sell his face for money.
When he went home, he was sick. This September he died, on the
Washington reservation. The doctor asserted that he died from a broken
heart.
He was the last of the great chiefs of the American Indians. The
Historical Society of the State of Washington has erected over his
grave a noble monument. Under it he lies, while people read his name,
translated: "Thunder-rolling-in-the-mountains."