I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute 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. 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! I am tired. 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.
A peaceful man, Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain was born in 1840 in the Wallowa Valley of what is now northeastern Oregon. The son took his father's name, Chief Joseph, and, when his father died in 1871, the younger Chief Joseph was elected as 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.
In Glimpses of California and the Missions, Helen Hunt Jackson recorded one early Oregon settler's tale 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.
Helen Hunt Jackson, Glimpses of California and the Missions, 1902, pages 278-279.
California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives, 1849-1900 In 1873, Chief Joseph negotiated with the federal government to ensure 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 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 three young Nez Percé men, enraged at the loss of their homeland, had massacred a band of white settlers. Fearing U.S. Army retaliation, the chief began what is now known as one of the greatest American military retreats.
By the time Chief Joseph surrendered, more than 200 of his followers had died. His plight, however, did not end. Although the fearless leader 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, yet it was still far from their homeland in the Wallowa Valley.
