Old Missoula

Chief Joseph Named ‘Napoleon of the Indians’

White men named Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians “The Napoleon of the Indians.”

Brilliant military strategy was attributed to the Indian chief. Whether or not he earned military laurels is questionable, but there is no doubt that Chief Joseph won the respect of white men.

He led his tribe against federal troops 11 times. Of five pitched battles, the Nez Perce won three, drew one, and lost one – all in a single campaign, against an opposing force which numbered about 2,000 men to Joseph’s 89 warriors.

Joseph took up arms against the United States after his tribe had been ordered from their land in Washington and Idaho to live on a reservation. When forced to abandon his land, he gathered together his tribe to make the long journey from Idaho to Canada – a march of more than 200 miles in hostile territory.

He led them out of the valley that had been their home for generations, apparently not to give battle to the whites, but to find a new home.

Nevertheless, he was drawn into battle in Whitebird Canyon and his great retreat began. Despite their small numbers, the Nez Perce stood off U. S. soldiers in the Battle of the Big Hole.

Continuing toward the Canadian line, Joseph paid for the horses and provisions he secured, as long as he could. When he could no longer do this he took them.

He had almost reached the Canadian line when Gen. Miles overtook him near the Bear Paw mountains. Here he yielded to save his women and children.

Historians describe Joseph’s surrender as one of the most dramatic in history. To Miles, designated by Gen. Howard to accept the surrender, Chief Joseph said: “I am tired of fighting . . . . 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: my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”

His surrender was complete. He said he would fight no more, and this promise he faithfully observed.

Gen Miles once said of Joseph: “He is the whitest Indian I have ever known.” When Joseph was told of this remark, he said: “Gen. Miles cannot compliment me by calling me white. I could not insult an Indian worse than saying he was like a white man. All my life I have told the truth. I cannot say the same of any white man I have known.”

Gen. Howard thought of Joseph as the greatest war chief the North American Indians ever produced. It was stated by the commissioner of Indian Affairs in his report of 1877 that “Joseph observed the rules of civilized warfare, and did not mutilate dead enemies.”

Chief Joseph died in October 1904, heartbroken, on the Tongue River in Idaho, where he spent the last unhappy years of his 64 years. As he was dying, he called his son, Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, to advise him, “Remember,” he said, “this is your country, don’t give it up. Don’t sell the bones of your mother and father.”*

An idol of his people, Joseph was described as a worthy chieftain – strong, alert, intelligent, although disdainful and haughty at times.

*[These were approximately the words spoken to Chief Joseph by his father, Old Joseph, as he was dying in 1871. Chief Joseph’s name was sometimes translated as “Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain.”]

[The overall mileage of their retreat is now given as 1,170.]