01Biography
Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it, known as Chief Joseph, was born in 1840 in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon. His father, Tuekakas, or Old Joseph, led the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce. Joseph never traveled the Oregon Trail. He belongs in its story because of the settlement that followed it into the Northwest. After a treaty in 1855 and a gold rush in 1860 and 1861, a treaty in 1863 demanded about 90 percent of Nez Perce land. His band never accepted it.
Joseph led the band from 1871 and argued for years that they could stay. In 1877 the Army ordered them onto the reservation, and war began after warriors from other bands killed settlers. Joseph was a spokesman, not a war leader. On October 5, 1877, about 40 miles short of Canada, he surrendered at the Bear Paw Mountains in Montana.
02Why they matter
His fight to keep the Wallowa Valley shows what the settlement that followed the Oregon Trail cost the Nez Perce.
03How they died
Joseph and his people were sent into exile in Indian Territory, in present-day Oklahoma, and in 1885 he and many of his followers were moved to the Colville Reservation in Washington. Except for two brief visits he was never allowed back to the Wallowa. He died in his lodge on the Colville Reservation on September 21, 1904, aged about 64, probably of a heart attack or stroke, and was buried at Nespelem, Washington.
04Legacy
The Bear Paw Battlefield is now part of Nez Perce National Historical Park, and Chief Joseph Dam on the Columbia River carries his name.