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viui «aiVJiauu turn unciman were the military dictators of the United States. These two dignitaries had become the idols of the north, in consideration of their salient victories which had brought the recent war to a close. There word was law in military circles. And, today, in the northwest, the question arises as often before it has: Did these officials exercise their power to the very best advantage in treating with the Indian tribes? The story of the rebellion of Chief Joseph against the confiscation of the lands of the Nez Perces by General Grant: the story of the repudiation by General Sherman of the terms made by General Miles to Chief Joseph, following the latter’s surrender at the Battle of the Bear Paws, would indicate that these men might have abused their power.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 Flat heads (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 sub-chiefs 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 vrere 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.Ilrnkpift Promisematters by giving the “Non-Treaty Nez Perces, as Chief Joseph IT. ami his followers were called, permission to remain in Wallowa valley.Another Broken Promise In 3 873. a commission decided that the non-treaty Nez Perces Were without their rights, and that they must leave the country in which they had always lived.Along about this time, encouraged by the attitude of the government, settlers began to locate in Wallowa valley. Joseph went to them and explained his position. He told them that the treaty by which the land had been ceded to the United States had been repudiated by the Nez Perce nation. He warned them that there would be war if they remained. Instead of heeding this warning, they encouraged other settlers to come.Grant 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 Valley The 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 tlie 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-lIul-Hul-Sote The head or this religious order was a fierce old medicine man named Too-hul-hul-sote. He had come into power sincethagWkientliatfoh«iyvaalfotr“gma\f*tehlt;b«scTItgithp trnuhln hoH a ft con hntnraan thu Mo'rwhiv.H01U03ilLIfl
Newspaper Details
Bozeman Courier
Bozeman, Montana, US
Fri, May 13, 1927
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Geri L.
NA, 17 Jul 2024
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