Saga of Chief Joseph

by Helen Addison Howard

  7. C. M. Drury, Henry Harmon Spalding, pp. 72–74, 79 ff.

  8. To avoid confusion, the old chief’s Indian name, Tu-eka-kas, will be used, although his Christian name was Joseph. His son, the subject of this biography, will be designated as Young Joseph where there is danger of ambiguity. Regarding the name, see Kate McBeth, Nez Percés Since Lewis and Clark, pp. 63–64.

  9. Franz Boas, Folk-Tales of Salishan and Sahaptin Tribes, p. 201.

  10. Spinden, op. cit., pp. 200–215. The information in this chapter concerning the habits and customs of the Nez Perces is based upon Spinden’s study of their tribal life and upon Boas’ collection of myths.

  11. For further discussion see Genealogy chart (Appendix).

  12. Norman B. Wood, Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs, p. 498.

  13. Ibid.

  14. “An Indian’s Views . . . ,” op. cit., p. 415. Dr. C. M. Drury believes it likely that the Rev. H. H. Spalding baptized Young Joseph on April 12, 1840, as ‘Ephraim.’ See Drury, The Diaries and Letters of Henry H. Spalding and Asa Bowen Smith, Relating to the Nez Perce Mission, 1838–1842 (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958), p. 288, note 90.

  15. Ibid., p. 416.

  16. Spinden, op. cit., p. 268. Nipo Strongheart, a chief of the Yakimas and an ethnologist of note, in a personal conversation with Dan McGrath and the author, gave the spelling of the monster’s name as Ilt-swi-tsichs. The ch is pronounced as in German. There are various versions of the legend. This one is from Boas’ collection of folk tales.

  17. Chief Nipo Strongheart in an interview, December 10, 1934, gave Spi-li-yai as the Nez Perce name for Coyote.

  2. The Coming of the Missionaries

  1. Haines in Red Eagles of the Northwest, p. 73, states that Old Joseph or Tu-eka-kas was a member of this welcoming party upon Whitman’s return. However, Haines mistakes Tak-en-sue-tis (Samuel), who was present at the rendezvous, for Tu-eka-kas. See McBeth, The Nez Percés Since Lewis and Clark, pp. 38–39.

  2. Drury, Henry Harmon Spalding, p. 296. For a detailed account of Nez Perce missionary history see C. M. Drury’s trilogy, Henry Harmon Spalding; Marcus Whitman, M.D.; and Elkanah and Mary Walker.

  3. Crawford, The Nez Percés Since Spalding, p. 8.

  4. Drury, op. cit., p. 234. Tu-eka-kas’ wife was admitted into the church on May 14, 1843. Op. cit., p. 304.

  5. Drury, op. cit., p. 299.

  6. O. O. Howard, Chief Joseph; His Pursuit and Capture, p. 9. Joseph’s father-in-law made this statement to Howard.

  7. J. P. Dunn, Jr., Massacres of the Mountains, p. 631. Both Drury and Haines give the name of this chief as Old James.

  8. Victor, Early Indian Wars of Oregon, pp. 180–84.

  9. Ibid.

  3. Thunder-rolling-in-the-mountains

  1. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, p. 415.

  2. Curtis, The North American Indian, VIII, 64. A man in a yellow blanket is the Nez Perce symbol for thunder.

  3. The description of the sacred vigil is taken from the account by Spinden, “The Nez Percé Indians,” Memoirs of the American Anthropological Society, Vol. II.

  4. Spinden, op. cit., p. 262.

  5. Joseph’s Indian name and its translation as inscribed on the monument at his grave in Nespelem, Washington.

  4. The Council Smoke of 1855

  1. Haines, Red Eagles of the Northwest, p. 23.

  2. Ibid., pp. 22 ff.

  3. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, p. 146.

  4. Col. Lawrence Kip, The Indian Council at Walla Walla, 1855, pp. 10–11.

  5. A. J. Splawn, Ka-mi-akin: The Last Hero of the Yakimas, p. 28.

  6. House Executive Documents, Vol. XI, No. 93, 34th Congress, 1st Session, p. 115. McWhorter, too, rejects the existence of a plot and quotes from an educated Nez Perce who likewise scoffed at the story, declaring that Lawyer became scared and moved to the white camp “to save his hide.” McWhorter, Hear Me, My Chiefs!, p. 95. Yet this claim fails to hold water in view of the fact that of the 5,000 Indians present, 2,500 were Nez Perces, and the 100 whites could scarcely defend Lawyer against 2,500 non-Nez Perces.

  7. Kip, op. cit., p. 24.

  8. George Fuller, A History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 221.

  9. This was the father of the Looking Glass who became Joseph’s confederate in the Nez Perce War of 1877. Young Looking Glass was about twenty-three years old at this time.

  10. Hazard Stevens, Life of Isaac I. Stevens, II, 54.

  11. Ibid., p. 58.

  12. H. Clay Wood, Joseph and His Land Claims or Status of Young Joseph and His Band of Nez Percé Indians, p. 42.

  13. “An Indian’s Views . . . ,” op. cit., p. 417.

  14. In a letter to the author dated January 20, 1939, P. M. Hamer, Chief of the Division of Reference of the National Archives in Washington, writes: “The usual cross mark appears with Chief Joseph’s [Tu-eka-kas’] name on the original of the treaty. However, it is impossible for us to determine whether the mark was made by Chief Joseph or by someone else. The ink appears to be the same as that used for the marks of the other Indian signatories of the treaty.”

  15. This treaty of 1855 guaranteed perpetual ownership of the Wallowa Valley to the band of Tu-eka-kas.

  16. Senate Executive Documents, Vol. XXX, No. 97, 62nd Congress, 1st Session, p. 7.

  17. Ibid., p. 6.

  5. War in the Columbia Basin—1856–58

  1. Haines in Red Eagles of the Northwest, p. 143, states that a troop of cavalry under Stevens was composed entirely of Nez Perces, among them being Tu-eka-kas (Old Joseph), and that seventy other warriors served as scouts under Craig. Neither the name Old Joseph nor Tu-eka-kas, however, appears in the official muster rolls. See Stevens, Life of Isaac I. Stevens, p. 169.

  2. Splawn, Ka-mi-akin: The Last Hero of the Yakimas, p. 43.

  3. Report of Secretary of War, 1858–59, Vol. I, Part 2, Doc. 1, pp. 335, 338, 339.

  4. Stevens, op. cit., II, 203.

  5. Report of Secretary of War, 1858–59, pp. 370, 389. Also in H. Clay Wood, Joseph and His Land Claims or Status of Young Joseph and His Band of Nez Percé Indians, pp. 23–24.

  6. Meany, History of the State of Washington, p. 217.

  7. Report of Secretary of War, 1858–59, p. 332. Colonel Steptoe’s report of October 19, 1857.

  8. Op. cit., p. 333. Letter of J. W. Nesmith of October 18, 1857.

  9. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, p. 431.

  10. Report of Commissioner of Indians Affairs, 1859, pp. 420–21. Report of Agent Cain.

  11. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1859–60, House Executive Documents, No. 1, 36th Congress, 2nd Session, p. 403. Report of Edward R. Geary of October 1, 1860.

  12. Wood, op. cit., p. 24.

  13. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1861–62, House Executive Documents, No. 1, 37th Congress, 3rd Session, p. 448. Report of B. F. Kendall in 1862.

  14. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1859–60, p. 395. Edward R. Geary’s report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

  15. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1859–60, p. 410. Report of Edward R. Geary.

  16. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1861–62, op. cit., p. 447. Report of B. F. Kendall.

  17. Joseph’s familiarity with the buffalo country is conjectural. Documentary evidence records but one visit, that in the spring of 1874 or 1875 along the Yellowstone River; this is indicated in Monteith’s letter to Smith, dated March 1, 1875, preserved in the Lapwai files. It is quite possible, however, that Joseph may have accompanied his father on previous visits, although it is unlikely that they made as frequent visits as did the bands of Chiefs Looking Glass and White Bird.

  18. This information is based on the account of the Nez Perces’ hunting habits found in Curtis, The North American Indian, Vol. VIII.

  19. Boas, Folk-Tales of Salishan and Sahaptin Tribes, p. 201.


  20. When the tribe was badly in need of meat, they tried to stampede the buffalo over a precipice so as to kill them en masse. Failing this, they resorted to the use of spears; and in this case it was not considered necessary for the women to identify the particular hunter who killed each animal. Spinden, “The Nez Percé Indians,” Memoirs of the American Anthropological Society, Vol. II.

  6. The Treaty of 1863

  1. The Dreamer religion will be discussed in the next chapter.

  2. Much of the foregoing is drawn from the Works of H. H. Bancroft, XXXI, 487–88. Bancroft states that although Big Thunder seceded from the confederacy of the Nez Perce nation, he did sign the revised treaty of 1863 because its provisions preserved his home at Lapwai.

  3. Charles J. Kappler, Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, pp. 843–48.

  4. Wood, Joseph and His Land Claims or Status of Young Joseph and His Band of Nez Percé Indians, p. 41.

  5. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, pp. 417–18.

  6. Ibid., pp. 419–20.

  7. Ibid., p. 418. Although Young Joseph himself is authority for the statement that his father planted poles around the valley he claimed, J. H. Horner is more specific. He states: “Old Joseph built a rock monument around poles in two different places on each side of the trail on top of the Wallowa Hill to show his lines to his Wallowa country, which whites later called ‘Joseph’s Dead Line.’ Different early settlers told me of stopping on their way to the valley and examining them. There were a few monuments of rocks built besides, but only two with poles.” Letter to author, December 17, 1945.

  8. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1862–63, House Executive Documents, No. 1, 38th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 556–57. Report of Superintendent C. H. Hale, dated September 1, 1863, Olympia, Washington Territory.

  9. Condition of the Indian Tribes, Report of the Joint Special Committee, Congressional Report, Appendix, 1867, p. 10. Report of J. W. Nesmith.

  10. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1865–66, House Executive Documents, p. 250. Italics are those of the agent. Perhaps the leading instigator of war propaganda among the nontreaties was White Bird (a confederate of Joseph in the war of 1877). In his report O’Neill refers to him as a subchief; he was really a chief. White Bird went to Montana after the council of 1863, but voluntarily returned to the reservation in November, 1865.

  11. Kappler, op. cit., pp. 1024–25.

  12. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1869–70, House Executive Documents, No. 1, Part 1, 41st Congress, 3rd Session, p. 646. Report of Colonel De L. Floyd Jones.

  13. Report of Secretary of Interior, 1872–73, p. 159. Report of Special Commission.

  14. Letter from Monteith to Walker, August 27, 1872, in Lapwai Agency files.

  15. Report of Secretary of War, 1877, I, 115.

  16. The information regarding marriage customs is based on Spinden, “The Nez Perce Indians,” Memoirs of the American Anthropological Society, II, 250–51.

  17. Meany, “Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce,” Master of Letters thesis. Dr. Meany’s investigations corroborate McLaughlin’s statement that these two wives were with Joseph at Nespelem, Washington. One of the widows of Looking Glass married Joseph in the Indian Territory.

  18. This name was furnished by Baptiste Parris, Flathead Reservation, Montana, to Judge William I. Lippincott, in an interview conducted for Howard and McGrath. However, Samuel Tilden, of Arlee, Montana, a Nez Perce child survivor of the war of 1877, states in a letter to the author that this name is “Iatowinnai,” meaning “Woman Walking.”

  19. This information relating to Joseph’s family is based on the source investigations of Dr. Edmond S. Meany, and recorded in his Master of Letters thesis. One of Joseph’s children, Dr. Meany reports, “died since living at Nespilem, two died in Indian Territory and the rest died in Idaho.”

  20. James McLaughlin, My Friend the Indian, p. 349.

  21. From an article on the death of Joseph, New York Sun, September 25, 1904.

  7. The Tah-mah-ne-wes Beckons

  1. William C. McLeod, American Indian Frontier, p. 500.

  2. James Mooney, “The Ghost Dance Religion,” Fourteenth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Part I, p. 309.

  3. Howard, Chief Joseph: His Pursuit and Capture, p. 40.

  4. McLeod, op. cit., p. 522.

  5. Mooney, op. cit., p. 719. The term given by Mooney, “Sa’ ghalee Tyee,” is the Chinook word for the Great Spirit. Nipo Strongheart, a Yakima Indian chief and an ethnologist of repute, stated to Howard and McGrath in 1934 that the Nez Perce word is “Tah-Mah-Ne-Wes.”

  6. Ibid.

  7. Ibid., p. 716.

  8. Some historians assert that Tu-eka-kas died in 1873. This claim is apparently based on a letter written by Agent John Monteith to H. Clay Wood, and dated May 15, 1876, in which Monteith states: “Old Joseph died either on December 1872 or in Jany 1873. I think it was in Jany. 1873.” However, Assistant Adjutant General Wood in his report, also written in 1876 after a meeting with Chief Joseph concerning the latter’s land claims, says the old chief died in 1871 and was buried in Wallowa Valley. This statement carried the most weight as it comes directly from Young Joseph. Tu-eka-kas, besides his name of Joseph, was also known as “Wal-lam-mute-kint,” according to Wood. Indians often change their names due to events in their lives. See p. 48 of Wood’s Status of Young Joseph.

  9. “An Indian’s Views of Indian Affairs,” North American Review, April, 1879, p. 419.

  10. The old custom of painting the corpse was abandoned at some undetermined period, probably only gradually with the passing of years. Curtis, The North American Indian, VIII, 160, indicates that it was no longer done in the 1870s.

  11. An old Indian woman told J. H. Horner, historian of Wallowa Valley, that Old Joseph died in August and was buried on the south slope of the forks of Wallowa and Lostine rivers. Another Indian woman claims Old Joseph died in October in his sleep. Three white settlers took part in the burial ceremony. Eventually the old chief’s remains were removed to the hill at the foot of Wallowa Lake, where a monument was dedicated to him on September 26, 1926.

  12. Early white settlers in Wallowa Valley told Mr. Horner that one horse was killed and a stake run through its body to hold it upright over the grave. Another horse was also killed and laid beside it. Apparently this was done to show greater honor and respect to the influential old chief.

  In a letter, October 20, 1941, Mr. Horner further amplifies Nez Perce burial customs. “The Indians,” he writes, “killed a good horse every year for several years. The Indians told the settlers it was for the purpose of Joseph having a fresh horse in the happy hunting grounds. The one you mentioned [i.e., the first horse referred to in this footnote] was told me by Aaron Wade who came here [Wallowa Valley] in the seventies. He said this horse dried up and when the wind blew the hide and bones would rattle.”

  13. The information regarding burial customs is based on Spinden, “The Nez Percé Indians,” Memoirs of the American Anthropological Society, II, 251–54.

  Mr. Horner, however, implies that these traditional customs were not strictly followed. In a letter to the author, December 17, 1945, he writes that Old Joseph “took sick on north side of the Wallowa River and was immediately moved to the south side at their large camp in forks of Wallowa and Lostine Rivers. Died in night and was buried the next day on the top of the ridge. And that night his remains were moved down the ridge and buried again—where I dug up the remains in September, 1926, and buried them under the Monument at the foot of Wallowa Lake. The grave [i.e., the original grave] was fenced with Balm poles as there is very little Cedar in this county. There were two posts set at each corner and boughs woven in between each two posts, and brush and poles laid on top, then stone. This was told me by A. V. McAlexander whose father homesteaded the land in 1875 and this pen was still there. I have seen Indians buried on Imnaha and that was the way they built their pen around a grave.”

  14. Repor
t of Secretary of Interior, 1871–72, House Executive Documents, Vol. I, 42nd Congress, 3rd Session, p. 655.

  15. “An Indian’s Views . . . ,” op. cit., p. 418.

  16. Ibid., pp. 418–19.