Chief Joseph essays

Chief Joseph essays The person that I did my first quarter project on was Chief Joseph. Chief Joseph was born in 1840 in the Wallowa Valley (the Wallowa Valley is now northeastern Oregon). He was born into the tribe of the Nez Perce. The name that the tribe gave him was Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, the translation is Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain. He was also known as Joseph the younger because, Joseph was the name his father had taken Joseph the Elder (Josephs father) was the first Nez Perce to convert to Christianity. He also tried hard to keep peace between the tribe and the whites. In 1855 Josephs father helped Washingtons territorial governor set up a reservation for the Nez Perce, which ran from Oregon into Idaho. Only eight years later there was a gold rush in the Nez Perce territory. The government took back a lot of their land and they were left with only one-tenth of the land they had received. Josephs father was angry and destroyed his American flag and Bible, he then refused to move his tribe form the Wallowa valley or sign the treaty that would make the new reservation boundaries official. Eight years later Josephs father died leaving Joseph in charge. Joseph was left with his fathers name and the same problem. Whites kept coming to Wallowa Valley. Joseph kept fighting for his land and it looked like he would be able to keep it when in 1873 a federal order was written to move all white setters out of Wallowa Valley. But soon after, in 1877 General Oliver Otis Howard threatened to attack Josephs tribe if they didnt leave for another reservation in Idaho. Joseph did not want to fight the army so he started to lead his people to Idaho. But before they left, twenty Nez Perce warriors killed several nearby white settlers because they were angry about loosing their land. After that the U.S army went looking for Josephs tribe and find the ones ...