Kent Nerburn Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce (2005)

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It also includedAlaska and contained within its boundaries all of the lands of the Plateautribes, including the lands of the Nez Perce.Like most men in a position of authority in the Northwest, Howardwas a Presbyterian, and in his case this was no insignificant fact.He hadbeen a highly decorated officer during the Civil War and had even lost hisright arm in battle.But he was, at heart, a man of peace who at this pointin his life preferred teaching Sunday school in Portland to soldiering.Hehad served as head of the Freedman s Bureau and had been a champion forthe freed slaves after the Civil War, and he had been able to broker peacewith the Apaches in the Southwest prior to his posting to the headquar-ters of the Department of the Columbia at Fort Vancouver, directly acrossthe Columbia River from Portland and 360 miles west of the Nez Percereservation at Lapwai.There were many who felt that the general s overtly Christian mannercompromised his military decisions.But he himself was confident thatthough he preferred peace to a sword, he had the mettle to make the hardmilitary decisions when such decisions were necessary.His success duringthe bloody Civil War had proved this.As a part of the continuum of Presbyterian presence in the area,stretching from Spalding to Monteith to Howard himself, Howard under-stood his task as to be the military arm of the Christian peace process towhich his denomination had committed itself.The rabble of the minersand politicians and warmongers of various stripes was less important tohim than doing the bidding of his God in bringing the savages of the areato a proper relationship with the Lord and civilization. We Will Not Give Up the Land 69When word came to him that the troublesome Chief Joseph wanted tomeet with him to discuss the situation in the Wallowa, he immediatelyagreed.The Wallowa was an insignificant issue in his overall command,but he wanted to take the measure of this increasingly notorious chief andascertain exactly how much potential for problems he represented.The two men met on the Umatilla Reservation in the spring of 1875.Joseph had been leader of the Wallowa Nez Perce for almost four years, andHoward had been head of the Department of the Columbia for nearly sixmonths.Joseph approached the general and fixed him with a clear-eyed,penetrating gaze.He wanted to know if Howard had any message for himand his people about the ownership of their land.Howard had none andtold Joseph so.But in the meeting he fancied that he and Joseph had expe-rienced a meeting of minds and, in some unspoken manner, had estab-lished the foundation of a deep understanding and friendship.Shortly thereafter President Grant officially rescinded an order thathad given Joseph part of the Wallowa as a reservation and opened it in-stead to white settlement.Agent Monteith informed Joseph, who took thenews badly.But his response was mild compared to that of his young war-riors, who immediately started clamoring for war.Not wishing to run the risk of a fight with the U.S.Army, Joseph called agathering of all the nontreaty chiefs.The meeting took place in the earlysummer of 1875 in Joseph s Wallowa Valley.In attendance were Eagle fromthe Light, who lived far toward the Bitterroot Mountains and was dis-gusted with the entire white presence; Looking Glass, son of the reveredchief of the same name, who lived on a distant river bend many miles southof the white settlements and wished only to have his people be free to tendtheir gardens and travel to buffalo country to hunt in the old way; WhiteBird, whose craggy lands had been overrun by miners and whose peoplewere suffering endless cruelties and indignities at the white intrudershands; and Toohoolhoolzote, a strong follower of the ways of Smolhollaand adamant believer that the earth would not long tolerate the crueltiesand desecrations being visited upon her by the white settlers and those In-dians who had chosen to follow the white man s ways.Toohoolhoolzote, White Bird, and Eagle from the Light argued forwar.Each, for his private reasons, had reached the breaking point.Josephand Looking Glass counseled for prudence and restraint.Such a war, they70Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Percebelieved, was unwinnable and would only bring the full force of the U.S.government down upon their people.Better to continue seeking a peace-ful resolution to these endless white encroachments.Because the tribal spiritual leaders agreed with the moderates, thecause of peace carried the day [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki