“Our fathers were born here. Here they lived, here they died, here are
their graves. We will never leave them.”
– Chief Joseph
In the 1870s, the Nez Perce Indians were living on their
ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley, Oregon.
As American settlers moved into the area, the Nez Perce were repeatedly
asked to move to the Idaho Territory.
After several violent clashes, in 1877, the Nez Perce fled towards
Canada for political asylum.
U.S. newspapers covered what would be referred to as the Nez
Perce War. During a 1,170-mile fighting
retreat, it was U.S. Gen. Oliver O. Howard vs. the Nez Perce warriors, women
and children. The skill and courage of
the Nez Perce earned the U.S. public’s admiration. Still, the U.S. Government pursued the fleeing
people.
On October 5, just 40 miles from the Canadian border, the
Army closed in on the Indians. They
didn’t realize that the Army was tracking their movements by telegraph. Popular history has it that Joseph had said
at the formal surrender:
“Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me
before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed;
Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It
is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. 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, to see how many I can find. Maybe I shall find them
among the dead. 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.”
Instead of being returned home as per the surrender, the Nez
Perce were shuttled from reservation to reservation. As a spokesman for his people, Chief Joseph
would travel to Washington D.C. and New York City. He rode in a parade honoring former president
Ulysses Grant with Buffalo Bill Cody. He
met with President Theodore Roosevelt.
Joseph consistently requested that his people would be allowed to return
to the Wallowa Valley. It never
happened.