Chief Joseph’s Nephew Visits Missoula – 1906
AH-LA-KAT DOES NOT SEE PRESIDENT
Nez Perce Chief Returns From Washington, Where He Met Officials.
Chief Ah-La-Kat of the Nez Perce tribe of Indians and a ward of the Flathead reservation, was in Missoula yesterday, being en route home from Washington, D. C., where he went some time ago for the purpose of discussing matters relative to the opening of the reservation with the interior department.
Ah-La-Kat is probably one of the most intelligent Indians on the reservation and is conversant with many of the affairs which absorb the paleface. He speaks English fluently and appears to be well posted on public matters of the day.
He said that his trip to Washington was entirely of a personal nature and he was inclined to be very reticent when referring to it. He had expected to see President Roosevelt and have a personal interview with him, but in this particular he was disappointed. He did not state that he had been persistent in his efforts to see the president, but that, as a matter of course, he would have liked to have met him while at the nation’s capital.
Chief Ah-La-Kat, according to the information given out by members of his tribe who are believed to be in a position to know, state that his trip east was for the purpose of securing for himself a position on the commission which is to be appointed some time in the future by the president to appraise the lands on the reservation. Regarding this Ah-La-Kat would have nothing to say, yet it is generally believed among the knowing ones that this was the sole purpose of his trip.
Whether he called upon Congressman Dixon or other members of the Montana delegation is not known and no inkling was given out as to the degree of success with which he met while in Washington.
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on February 3, 1906.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349395033
Al-La-Kat was a nephew of the Nez Perce warrior, Chief Joseph and son of Joseph’s brother, Ollokot. Ollokot was killed at the Battle of the Bear Paws in Montana in 1877.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollokot
A photograph of Ah-La-Kat appears in the Tribal Legacies Catalogue furnished by the University of Oregon Special Collections Library in Eugene, Or. Referenced here is a manuscript written by J.H. Horner who studied the Wallowa area Indians in the early 1900’s. Below is from the Oregon Tribal Legacies Special Collections Catalogue:
J.H. Horner was a local amateur historian in eastern Oregon during the first half of the twentieth century. After moving to the Wallowa County town of Enterprise in 1911, Horner served as the county tax assessor beginning in 1918. Horner became very interested in the history of the Wallowa country, which was the homeland of Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce band in the mid nineteenth century. He began to research the historical developments into the region and record his findings into a manuscript. Horner worked with Umatilla reservation tribal member Otis Halfmoon, of Nez Perce ancestry, to access local knowledge of the Wallowa’s Native American heritage. J.H. Horner Photographs PH200_039 Horner compiled his thirty years’ worth of research into a 1,500-page manuscript titled Wallowa River and Valley, which was never published. A copy of the manuscript is held by the Oregon Historical Society. The J.H. Horner Photographs collection consists of thirty-two images, primarily of Native Americans, from the 1920s. Box 1, folder 1 of the collection contains an image of a Native American man sitting in tribal regalia. The image is labeled “Ah-La-Kat, Nez Perce nephew of Chief Joseph, son of the celebrated Ah-La-Kat (Ollicut, Ollokot) who served with Chief Joseph.” Ah-La-Kat poses in a plaid shirt, beaded belt, and fur sash with a feather in his hair. The J.H. Horner photographs collection contains important images and descriptions of Native Americans in nineteenth century Eastern Oregon. Ernest Haycox Papers Coll 164 Sources: “Guide to the J.H. Horner Papers,” Northwest Digital Archives, http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv70117 (accessed June 22, 2012). “Guide to the J.H. Horner Papers,” Special Collections and University Archives, UO Libraries.
Horner’s Document is available digitally at the link below: