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The white race, and more especially those who were living in Montana at the time of the Nez Perce uprising, are inclined to blame Chief Joseph for the bloody war which he waged against the settlers of Montana in 1877. As a matter of fact, however. Joseph was fighting for a principle—an ideal which was as sound as any patriotic principle which ever inspired a soldier of the United States.Nez Perces a Superior TribeProm the time of Lewis and Clark, up to the days when the government began to play a fast and loose game with the Nez Perce nation, that tribe had always been staunch friends of the white people. The Nez Perces were a superior race of aborigines. They were devoted to peace and were praised by every explorer and settler who has passed over the Oregon Trail, as well as by the early missionaries, Fathers DeSmet and Ravalli and Marcus Whitman.The story of the Nez Perces was much similar to that of the Flatheads (Sa-leeshes). Just as General Garfield had misrepresented to the government his negotiations with the Bitter Root valley Indians, claiming that Chief Chariot had surrendered the rights of the Saleeshes to that valley, when he had not. Early day commissioners sent out to treat with the Nez Perces made a treaty with subchiefs and head men who did not by any means represent the entire nation.It was this plan of pursuing the course of least reslstence—a plan too much in vogue by commissioners endeavoring to make a name for themselves in those days—that was the direct cause of the Nez Perce uprising. A group of sub-chiefs were cajoled into signing away the rights of the entire Nez Perce nation: and when the matter was reported to the tribe, the greater portion of the tribesmen resented it bitterly.Broken PromisesGovernor Isaac N. Stevens of Washington territory negotiated the first treaty vrith the Nez Perces in 1855. It was a liberal treaty confirming the rights of the Indian nation to hunting grounds in Idaho. Washington and Oregon. A second treaty was made in 1863. By this agreement, the fertile valleys of the Wallowa and Imnaha were relinquished by the Indians. The valleys in question were occupied by a tribe of the Nez Perce nation of which Joseph I. wasGrant was then president of the United States. His training had been militant. He answered the Indians by proclaiming the Wallowa valley a part of the public domain of the United States, and open to settlement.Naturally enough, this proclamation brought more settlers. Joseph now realized that he must make his fight for his people, or submit to what he and they considered a rank injustice. He issued an ultimatum that if the white settlers did not leave at once he and his followers would go on the war path.Settlers Arrive In ValleyThe settlers, feeling themselves secure in the attitude of President Grant, remained. The Indians began to commit petty depredations. Settlers in unprotected places began to feel the hand of the Indian. The settlers, alarmed, asked for military protection. The government sent a troop of cavalry into the valley. This, the Indians considered an act of war.The non-treaty Nez Perces were members of a religious order known to the government as The Dreamers.” The doctrine of the Dreamers was that the Great Spirit had made the earth complete, and that it was sinful to disturb it by cultivation. The Dreamers, it is said, were also opposed to churches and schools as disturbing the natural conditions of things. They also believed that a leader would come who would show them how to resist the encroachments of the whites, which had long ago begun to alarm the Indians. This leader was to be endowed with divine power, and would bring the spirits of all the dead Nez Perces back to life, to help the nation fight for their rights, if necessary.Too-Hul-Hul-SoteThe head or this religious order was a fierce old medicine man named Too-hul-hul-sote. He had come into power since the trouble had arisen between the Nez Perces and the government. As high priest of the order, he was the Implacable foe of the whites. Their ascendancy meant, of course, that his cult would go to pieces, and he was always for war. Most of the Nez Perces believed in him and his doctrines were held sacred. He had almost as much power as did Chief Joseph.General O. O. Howard was sent out to try and placate Joseph. He took the position that the Wallowa valley was a legiti-CHIEF JOSEPH II.. OF THE NEZ PERCES. the most notable Indian leader of all time who fearlessly led his people across an enemy-infested Montana, in his search of a new home for his followers. Was peace-loving, yet a fearless and tactful warrior leader.the murdered men swore a vendetta against the whites and took the offensive. White Bird and his band opened war by killing some of the settlers. These avengers rode back to the Nez Perce camp with the scalps of their victims. Joseph was at that time on Salmon river, arranging for the removal of the tribe. White Bird had come out in the open and rode boldly about the valley, proclaiming war.The fierce Too-hul-hul-sote took ad-populous people, inhabiting the valley of Snake river and extending to the Salmon and Clearwater rivers, we'.t from the Bitter Root mountains. Their men were brave, their women virtuous and their country was one of the finest in all the region. They were sqperior in many respects to most of the tribes that roved throughout the northwest.Of this people Joseph II. was a Worthyvantage of the situation. His voice was always for war. When Joseph arrived, he found that he was too late. The whole tribe had declared for war against the government of broken promises.” He made a vigorous protest, but without avail. Finally, when he saw that his people were determined to fight, he determined to lead them, although, in his heart, he was confident that there could be but one result.Howard then took personal command, sending detachments in every direction. The troopers were ordered to strike the Indians wherever found. Joseph was given the command of 400 Nez Perce fighting men.This is the history of the causes of the war with the Nez Perces in 1877. The half a dozen battles in which Joseph's warriors fought against the forces of Howard. Gibbon. Sturgis, Miles and other officers commanding the forces of federal troops, the masterly retirement of Joseph, leading his rapidly diminishing band of warriors, with their women and children in the 1.000 mile retreat from the Big Hole battlefield to the Bear Paw mountains, are well known incidents of history.Chief Joseph II.This Chief Joseph II. of the Nez Perces was the most notable Indian of all the Old West. He was courageous, a master in war and strategy, of noble mind, and more nearly resembled the Cooper type of early Indian romance than any other Indian leader mentioned in history.Twenty-two years ago last October he died, old and heart-broken, on Tonguechief. Strong, alert, intelligent; albeit,disdainful and haughty at times, he was the idol of his followers. When he led his people out of the valley that had been their home for generations, it was not to give battle to the whites, but to find a new home for the Nez Perces whom he believed had been treacherously dealt with by agents of the federal government and thus wrongly deprived ofsaid that there was no hotter place on the Round Top than he found that August day ten years or more later.When his fight at the Big Hole was ended. Chief Joseph took up his march down the valley, cumbered with women and children and his wounded warriors, heading in the direction of the British possessions where he hoped to find a home for his people and where they might receive the Just treatment that he •elt had been denied them in this country.Joseph’s Famous MarchThe history of the march of Joseph and his Nez Perces is even more remarkable than the story of the battle of the Big Hole. The first reports reaching Montana regarding Joseph’s campaign were much exaggerated. The battle of the Little Big Horn was fresh in the minds of the people of the state and it was naturally expected that the Nez Perces' trail through Montana would be marked by murder and outrage. But. the people did not know Chief Joseph. Joseph was a different type from Sitting Bull, and he was able to control his ag-nuu ins utreu uu vims wurpuiu. 11 wuuiu have been a very simple matter for him to slay the soldiers and volunteers who opposed him in Lolo pass. Much rather, however, he left the members of this force sleeping and marched quietly around them.Whatever may be the general opinion held as to the Justice of the course pursued by Chief Joseph and as to the righteousness of the cause he tried to uphold, there can be but one opinion regarding the man himself—he was the greatest Indian leader of all times.the valley to which they were strongly I gresslve voung men to a remarkable deattached by history and tradition.Battle of the Big HoleThe battles that were staged along the route of the famous march were not of Joseph's seeking; he had not crossed the mountains to fight the whites; but, when it became necessary, he and his warriors fought as Indians had never fought before and have never fought since.In the Battle of the Big Hole in 1877, the Nez Perces proved themselves magnificent fighters, but after different tactics and more valorous than was true of the tribes that the American soldiers had on previous occasions tried conclusions with. They fought as bravely and as fairly as did their white enemies, and they commanded the respect of the veterans numbered among the forces that had been pitted against them.In the first clash of the famous Battle of the Big Hole, the fiftieth anniversary of which will be commemorated in a couple of months, the Nez Perces were driven back, but they did not scatter and lose their heads; they were led by a master in the art of war. although this was his first encounter with the whites; andgree. He left no trail of blood and fire across the state.Viewed lrom a military standpoint this retreat was remarkable as the course, in its entirety, lay through an enemy's country, and it was accomplished with less annoyance to the people of the state than would have resulted from a similar march by a hostile white foe. Just so long as it was possible for him so to do. Joseph paid for the horses and provisions he secured. When he could no longer do this, he took them as any commander would have done: but. no brutality marked the course of the Nez Perce retreat.When, finally, Joseph surrendered to General Miles, it was because of the suffering among the women and children of the tribe, who. deprived of proper food and exposed to the chill of winter weather, were sick and dying. His surrender was completeBoard Members Re-appointedGovernor Erickson has reappointed one member of each of seven local institutional executive boards and named Julian A. Knight of Twin Bridges as a member of the board of the state orphans’ home to succeed Miss Delilah Raymond. The re-appoints were J. H. Baker. Bozeman, executive board of the state college; M. H. Parker, Boulder, board of school for deaf and blind; John M. Keith. Missoula, board of state university; Samuel Barker. Jr., Butte, school of mines: Fred R. Savage. Miles City, industrial school; Hugh L. McCaleb, Dillon, normal college; and Mrs. Lola B. Ives. Helena, vocational school for girls. The new terms end April 19, 1931.Community Club Organized At a recent meeting of 250 farm people of the Sun River and Fort Shaw communities, the second Farm Community club ol Cascade county tfas organized. E. F. Hockersnuth was elected president; J. F. Hancock, vice president; Mrs. Ray Allinson, secretary-treasurer, and Mrs. Bradford Clark, chairman of the program committee. The club will make a special effort to boost 4-H club work in the community and it 1b expected that at least 50 of the local boys and girls will be engaged in this work this season.Calls Hearing at Acton At Acton. May 24, the state railroad . „ commission will hold a public hearingWhen he yielded, on the application of the Great Northern it was with the promise that he would | railway to close that station, the commis-flght no more. He said: “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!'sion has announced. The railroad serts insufficient business at present or in prospect to warrant continuance of station facilities.
Newspaper Details
Bozeman Courier
Bozeman, Montana, US
Fri, May 13, 1927
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Geri L.
NA, 10 Jul 2024
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