Chief
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
"Chief Joseph, Thunder Rolling Down A Mountain"
Nez Perce
Born in Wallowa Valley, Oregon
Son of Tuekakas Nez Perce
and [mother unknown]
[spouse(s) unknown]
[children unknown]
Died
at age 64
in Colville Indian Reservation, Washington
Profile last modified
| Created 4 Jul 2014
This page has been accessed 6,842 times.
| Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt was Nez Perce. Join: Native Americans Project Discuss: native_americans |
Biography
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt Nez Perce is Notable.
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, later known as "Chief Joseph," was born about 1840 in the Wallowa Valley (now Oregon). [1] [2] His name translates roughly to Thunder Rolling Down a Mountain, [3] but he was known as Joseph, like his father, Tuekakas,[4] who had taken the name Joseph after being baptized in 1839, and was called Joseph the Elder. Presbyterian missionary Henry Spalding recorded in his journal April 12, 1840, "Baptise our sweet babe Henry Hart today... also Joseph's babe by the name of Ephraim." [5] Joseph had several wives and many children, some his own, others adopted into the family after their parents had died. He was married to a Nez Perce woman known as Wa-win-te-pi-ksat, the daughter of another important Nez Perce band leader of the Lapwai area named Whisk-tasket. Their marriage produced one daughter named Kap-kap-on-mi, born in 1865. Joseph would later remarry to a woman remembered as “Springtime,” who also bore a daughter in 1877. [6] An infant daughter died while the Nez Perce were imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth in 1878. [7] An 1880 photograph shows Chief Joseph with three wives and two children. The 1890 census of Chief Joseph's band lists him (as age 45) with two wives, Wah-win-tip-yo-la-Kateuh (age 32) and Ah-yoh-t o-weh-non-may (age 36). [8]
Joseph the Elder [9]had been one of the [10] Nez Percé leaders that had converted to Christianity, and it was because of him that the tribe lived in peace with their white neighbors. In 1855, there was a new treaty, that made a new reservation for the Nez Perce[11]. But then gold was discovered in the Nez Percé territory, a large number of white prospectors began to arriving on their lands. The United States government changed their minds, and took back millions of acres, it had promised to the Nez Percé people. After this Joseph destroyed his Bible. He refused the [12]boundaries of the new reservation, and would not leave his home in the Valley.
The Nez Perce reservation in 1855 (green) and the reduced reservation of 1863 (brown).
Chief Joseph, the Elder, died in 1871 and Young Joseph [13]became the chief of the Nez Perce. Chief Joseph, along with 2 other Nez Percé leaders, chiefs [14]Looking Glass and [15]White Bird, said no to the treaty, and to the tribes being moved off their land. In 1877, the three chiefs realizing what a war could mean for their people, backed down and agreed to the new reservation. Just before they were moved, warriors from White Bird's band attacked and killed several white settlers. Chief Joseph knew there would [16] war, so for the next four months he led his people on a 1,400 mile march toward Canada. With Chief Joseph were 700 Nez Perce, that included just 200 warriors. Along the way the Nez Perce, had a number of victories against the 2,000 soldiers that were pursing them.
Map of the flight of the Nez Perce and key battle sites
By the fall of 1877 Chief Joseph and his people had come within 40 miles of the Canadian border ,reaching the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana, but they were exhausted, they could go no further and were too tired, beaten and starving and could fight no longer. Chief Joseph surrendered to his enemy.
Chief Joseph and his people were taken to Kansas and then to Oklahoma. Chief Joseph tried for the next several years, to be allowed to take his pe0ple back on their land. He even met with President Rutherford Hayes in 1879. In 1885, Joseph and others were allowed to return to the[17]Pacific Northwest ,and the Colville Indian Reservation. So many of his people had already died, either from war or disease, and their new home was far from their true homeland in the Wallowa Valley.
Chief Joseph never saw his land again. He died on September 21, 1904, his doctor said he died of a broken heart. Chief Joseph was [18] buried in the Colville Indian Cemetery on the Colville Reservation in Washington.
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| Chief Joseph in 1901 |
Research Notes
Quotations attributed to Chief Joseph (but not confirmed as accurate) have been removed from this profile and placed on this page.
Sources
- ↑ Native American History - Profile: Chief Joseph
- ↑ NNDB.com - Chief Joseph AKA Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
- ↑ Google Books - Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain: The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
- ↑ Wikipedia - Old Chief Joseph
- ↑ Spalding, Henry Harmon, Smith Asa Bowen. The diaries and letters of Henry H. Spalding and Asa Bowen Smith relating to the Nez Percé Mission, 1838-1842. A.H. Clark, Glendale, CA. 1958. p. 288. digitized at Archive.org.
- ↑ Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians by William R. Swagerty, University of the Pacific, Stockton (updated June 8, 2005) digitized at swagerty
- ↑ Pearson, J. Diane. The Nez Perces in the Indian Territory: Nimiipuu Survival University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2008. p. 83
- ↑ Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M595, 692 rolls); Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75; National Archives, Washington, D.C. Joseph Band of Nez Perce, Colville Agency, June 30, 1890.
- ↑ Biography.com - Chief Joseph Biography (1840–1904)
- ↑ Native American Netroots - Old Chief Joseph
- ↑ Nez Percé .org - Nez Perce language
- ↑ Google Newspapers - Lewiston Morning Tribune - Feb 25, 1990 Historical look at boundaries
- ↑ Google Books - Chief Joseph: A Biography By Vanessa Gunther
- ↑ Wikipedia - Looking Glass
- ↑ Wikipedia - White Bird
- ↑ Google Books - The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607-1890
- ↑ Blue Book State - Notable Oregonians: Chief Joseph the Younger - Indian Leader
- ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #3502 - Burial - Chief Joseph Cemetery, Nespelem, Okanogan County, Washington, USA
See also:
- Nez Perce page on WikiTree
- First People
- Monte Dodge - Natives Of The Pacific Northwest And Their Legecy Photos
- The Seattle Times - A Promise To Chief Joseph -- Heirs Honor 104-Year-Old Request For Horse
- Pbs.org - Chief Joseph
- Wiki Quote - Chief Joseph
- Oregon Historical Records - Chief Joseph the Younger (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt) (1840-1905)
- Face Book Pages - Chief Joseph
- Robinson Library - Chief Joseph
- Google Books - Unspeakable
- Google Books -Native America: A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1
- Google Books - Lonely Planet Pacific Northwest Trips
- Chief Joseph -Wikipedia
Memories: 1
Enter a personal reminiscence or story.
Wesley Doughman
I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No." He who led the young men [Olikut] 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.
posted 2 Nov 2013 by Wesley Doughman
[thank Wesley]
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Why are there no profiles for his descendants?
While there are some offspring specifically named in the biography, perhaps no further information is known about them. Do you have a source or sources that document their lives? Perhaps there's something in the long list of footnotes and "See also"'s.
It's highly unlikely that Chief Joseph actually said any of the things that are posted as quotations from him. He did not speak English. At best they are what a translator interpreted and more likely they are mostly inventions. Can they be removed from the profile and if they need to be somewhere, added to a free-space page?
you answered your own statement. Via Translators. "more likely they are mostly inventions" is your opinion. one is as bad as the other.
Quoting from Wikipedia, which cites a contemporaneous record of James Morrow Walsh and Brown, Mark M. The Flight of the Nez Perce. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 407–08, 428.
"General Howard arrived on October 3, leading the opposing cavalry, and was impressed with the skill with which the Nez Perce fought, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications. Following a devastating five-day siege during freezing weather, with no food or blankets and the major war leaders dead, Chief Joseph formally surrendered to General Miles on the afternoon of October 5, 1877. The battle is remembered in popular history by the words attributed to Joseph at the formal surrender:
Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on 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, to see how many 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.[19]
The popular legend deflated, however, when the original pencil draft of the report was revealed to show the handwriting of the later poet and lawyer Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood, who claimed to have taken down the great chief's words on the spot. In the margin it read, "Here insert Joseph's reply to the demand for surrender"
If you want the profile ask, and i will happily give it to you
Can you please add me (email is kpforbes1 [at] comcast [dot] net and the Native Americans Project to the trusted list? Thank you
No. if you personally want the profile go to the request format and then i will add you and remove myself. from then its up to you. that is because your forcing me to which i will do under duress.
The Native Americans Project has the right to take it over. They do not need permission and never wanted to before.
Hi Eric! I'm the Leader of the Native Americans project. I will go ahead and add the project as a manager. This profile is being featured next week in conjunction with several other Native American profiles so we are looking at all of them. Thanks!
I have visited the "last battlefield" in Montana several times. It is not exactly on the beaten path, and it has been several decades since my last visit, so I don't know what interpretive information is displayed there now. (I do imagine that the road is paved now.) I recall diagrams of the site illustrating Chief Joseph's military knowledge of military tactics (as indicated in that book, the U.S. Army was impressed). He seems to have been an exceptional leader, and it is a shame that he was defeated so close to the Canadian border.
May have Been Translated but we get the bigger point and feel the Indians pain.
It is not respectful to put words written by white men in the mouths of Native Americans.
I agree. I feel some of that he feel sad and tired and no blankets and cold I can believe that was said. Do you not think so
Profile managers, if this profile needs continued project protection, it needs co-management by a project-- probably the Native Americans project; please add the following email address as profile manager:
Thank you.
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt-1 and Nez Perce-1 appear to represent the same person because: Clearly meant to be the same man.
NAME: Chief Joseph
BIRTH DATE: March 03, 1840 DEATH DATE: September 21, 1904 PLACE OF BIRTH: Wallowa Valley, Oregon PLACE OF DEATH: Colville Reservation, Washington ORIGINALLY: In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat AKA: Chief Joseph
Last names may be confusing when it comes yo native Americans
The man who became a national celebrity with the name "Chief Joseph" was born in the Wallowa Valley in what is now northeastern Oregon in 1840. He was given the name Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, or Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, but was widely known as Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, because his father had taken the Christian name Joseph when he was baptized at the Lapwai mission by Henry Spalding in 1838.
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Categories: Nez Perce Cemetery, Okanogan County, Washington | Nez Perce Chiefs | Nez Perce | Notables