JOSEPH (CHIEF JOSEPH)

(c. 1840-1904), Nez Percé Indian chief. The surrender speech of Chief Joseph has become perhaps the most famous statement in American Indian history:

I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed.... The old men are all killed.... 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 time to look for my children and see how many of them 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.

This speech came at the conclusion of a remarkable effort by the Nez Percé tribe to escape to Canada in 1877. They had traveled a circuitous route of about fifteen hundred miles and had nearly reached their destination before being forced to surrender just south of the Canadian border. Most historians believe that Joseph's role in the retreat has been exaggerated; he was only one of several leaders. Nonetheless he remains an enduring symbol of Indian resistance.

A reluctant general in an extraordinary campaign, Joseph belonged to a group victimized by a familiar series of events. The Nez Percé reservation had been greatly reduced in size after the discovery of gold in eastern Oregon. Although the Nez Percés had not agreed to the loss of their lands, the government insisted they be confined within the new boundaries. When young Nez Percés along the Salmon River killed people they deemed intruders, they knew retribution would come. Their tribe first hid them and then decided to flee.

Joseph at this time was in his late thirties; he had succeeded his father as chief in 1871. A tall, dignified man, he had appeared well suited to lead in times of peace, but the times now demanded a different role. He and other Nez Percé men waged a series of battles during the summer of 1877. Making their way through the mountainous terrain of Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, they frustrated the efforts of the U.S. Army to capture them.

The Nez Percés crossed the Missouri River in northern Montana on September 23. Soon thereafter, thinking they had outlasted and outwitted their pursuers, they stopped to rest in the vicinity of the Bear Paw Mountains, about forty miles south of the Canadian border. With no bluecoats in sight and suffering from hunger and exhaustion, they prepared for the final push into Canada. But there they were surprised by Gen. Nelson Miles on September 30. On October 5 they ended what had already become a famous flight.

Joseph had been assured that the Nez Percés would be permitted to return to their home country in the Wallowa Valley in eastern Oregon. But political pressure from the Northwest dictated another fate: exile to far-off Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). In 1885 some of the Nez Percés were allowed to move to the Lapwai Reservation in Idaho, not far from the Wallowa Valley, but Joseph and others were sent to the Colville Reservation in northeastern Washington.

For the remainder of his life, Joseph tried unsuccessfully to convince federal authorities that he and others from his tribe should regain a place in the valley "where most of my relatives and friends are sleeping their last sleep." But he died at Colville and was buried there. In 1905 a monument was erected in his honor at Nespelem on the reservation. On that occasion, a Nez Percé, Yellow Bull, rode Joseph's horse and spoke about him while on horseback. "Joseph is dead," the old man said, "but his words will live forever."

Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., The Nez Percé Indians and the Opening of the Northwest (1965).

Peter Iverson

See also Indians.