On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph, exhausted and
disheartened, surrendered in the Bears Paw Mountains of Montana, forty
miles south of Canada. Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain was born in
1840 in the Wallowa Valley of what is now northeastern Oregon. He
took the name of his father, (Old) Chief Joseph, or Joseph the Elder.
When his father died in 1871, Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, was
elected his father’s successor. He continued his father’s efforts to
secure the Nez Percé claim to their land while remaining peaceful
towards the whites. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking-glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-suit
is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men, now, who say
’yes’ or ’no’[that is, vote in council]. He who led on the young men
[Joseph’s brother, Ollicut] 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, and see how many of them I can find;maybe I shall
find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs; my heart is sick and sad.
From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever! Chief Joseph’s surrender to General Nelson A. Miles, October 5, 1877.
Indexed Map of Oregon showing the railroads in the state… Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1876.
Transportation and Communication. Geography & Map DivisionIn 1873, Chief Joseph negotiated with the federal government to
ensure that his people could stay on their land in the Wallowa Valley as
stipulated in 1855 and 1863 land treaties with the U.S. government.
But, in a reversal of policy in 1877, General Oliver Otis Howard threatened to attack if the Indians did not relocate to an Idaho reservation. Chief Joseph reluctantly agreed. As they began their journey to Idaho, Chief Joseph learned that a
group of Nez Percé men, enraged at the loss of their homeland, had
killed some white settlers in the Salmon River area. Fearing U.S. Army
retaliation, the chief began a retreat. With 2,000 soldiers in pursuit,
Chief Joseph led a band of about 700 Nez Percé Indians—fewer than 200
of whom were warriors, towards freedom—nearly reaching the Canadian
border. For over three months, the Nez Percé had outmaneuvered and
battled their pursuers traveling some 1,000 miles across Oregon,
Washington, Idaho, and Montana. By the time Chief Joseph surrendered, more than 200 of his followers
had died. Although he had negotiated a safe return home for his
people, the Nez Percé instead were taken to eastern Kansas and then to a
reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). In 1879, Chief Joseph
went to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Rutherford Hayes
and plead the case of his people. Finally, in 1885, nine years before
his death, Chief Joseph and his followers were allowed to return to a
reservation in the Pacific Northwest—still far from their homeland in
the Wallowa Valley. “The Big Chiefs”, Nez-Percé and Yakima Indians, Astoria, Ore. Centennial 1911. M.B. Marcell, 1911. Panoramic Photographs. Prints & Photographs DivisionOne early Oregon settler told of his encounter with Chief Joseph:
Why I got lost once, an’ I came right on [Chief Joseph’s] camp
before I knowed it…’t was night, ‘n’ I was kind o’ creepin’ along
cautious, an’ the first thing I knew there was an Injun had me on each
side, an’ they jest marched me up to Jo’s tent, to know what they should
do with me….
Well, Jo, he took up a torch, a pine knot he had burnin’, and he
held it close’t up to my face, and looked me up an’ down, an’ down an’
up; an’ I never flinched; I jest looked him up an’ down ‘s good ‘s he
did me; ‘n’ then he set the knot down, ‘n’ told the men it was all
right, –I was`tum tum;’ that meant I was good heart; ‘n’ they gave me
all I could eat, ‘n’ a guide to show me my way, next day, ‘n’ I could
n’t make Jo nor any of ’em take one cent. I had a kind o’ comforter o’
red yarn, I wore round my neck; an’ at last I got Jo to take that, jest
as a kind o’ momento.
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