Editing Chief Joseph (section)

==Background==
Chief Joseph was born ''Hinmuuttu-yalatlat'' (alternatively ''Hinmaton-Yalatkit'' or ''hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt'' {{bracket}}[[Nez Perce language|Nez Perce]]: "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain"], or ''hinmatóoyalahtq'it'' ["Thunder traveling to higher areas"])<ref>{{cite web |author=TonyIngram - nptwebmaster@nezperce.org |url=http://www.nezperce.org/Official/commands.htm |title=Nez Perce language |publisher=Nezperce.org |access-date=December 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528175104/http://www.nezperce.org/Official/commands.htm |archive-date=May 28, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> in the [[Wallowa River|Wallowa Valley]] of [[eastern Oregon|northeastern Oregon]]. He was known as Young Joseph during his youth because his father, [[Old Chief Joseph|Tuekakas]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.windriverhistory.org/exhibits/chiefjoseph/chiefjoseph01.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012054906/http://www.windriverhistory.org/exhibits/chiefjoseph/chiefjoseph01.htm |archive-date=October 12, 2013 |title=Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians |publisher=[[Chief Washakie Foundation]] |author=William R. Swagerty, [[University of the Pacific, Stockton]] |date=June 8, 2005 |access-date=April 6, 2013 }}</ref> was baptized with the same Christian name and later become known as "Old Joseph" or "Joseph the Elder".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.htm |title=THE WEST – Chief Joseph |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=October 31, 2011 |archive-date=September 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110905135046/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/chiefjoseph.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

While initially hospitable to the region's white settlers, Joseph the Elder grew wary when they demanded more Indian lands. Tensions grew as the settlers appropriated traditional Indian lands for farming and livestock. [[Isaac Stevens]], governor of the [[Washington Territory]], organized a council to designate separate areas for natives and settlers in 1855. Joseph the Elder and the other Nez Perce chiefs signed the [[Treaty of Walla Walla]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Trafzer |first=Clifford E. |date=Fall 2005 |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/106.3/trafzer.html |title=Legacy of the Walla Walla Council, 1955 |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly |volume=106 |issue=3 |pages=398–411 |doi=10.1353/ohq.2005.0006 |s2cid=166019157 |issn=0030-4727 |access-date=August 9, 2017 |archive-date=January 5, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070105201203/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/106.3/trafzer.html |url-status=live }}</ref> with the United States establishing a Nez Perce reservation encompassing {{convert|7700000|acre|sqkm}} in present-day Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The 1855 reservation maintained much of the traditional Nez Perce lands, including Joseph's Wallowa Valley.<ref>{{cite book |author=Josephy, Alvin M. Jr. |title=The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest |location=Boston: Mariner |date=1997 |page=334 }}</ref> It is recorded that the elder Joseph requested that Young Joseph protect their 7.7-million-acre homeland, and guard his father's burial place.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/nepe/historyculture/old-chief-joseph-gravesite.htm |title=Old Chief Joseph Gravesite |access-date=October 23, 2014 |website=U.S. National Park Service |archive-date=November 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141101110532/http://www.nps.gov/nepe/historyculture/old-chief-joseph-gravesite.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1863, however, an influx of new settlers, attracted by a [[gold rush]], led the government to call a second council. Government commissioners asked the Nez Perce to accept a new, much smaller reservation of {{convert|760000|acre|sqkm|-2}} situated around the village of [[Lapwai, Idaho|Lapwai]] in western [[Idaho Territory]], and excluding the Wallowa Valley.<ref name=trtypd>{{cite news |url=https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/the-treaty-era.htm |publisher=Nez Perce National Historical Park |agency=National Park Service |title=The Treaty Period |access-date=April 5, 2016 |archive-date=April 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425011013/https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/the-treaty-era.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=trmap63>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=34NfAAAAIBAJ&pg=2266%2C2857500 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Historical look at boundaries |date=February 25, 1990 |page=5-centennial |access-date=November 14, 2020 |archive-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519154409/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=34NfAAAAIBAJ&pg=2266,2857500 |url-status=live }}</ref> In exchange, they were promised financial rewards, schools, and a hospital for the reservation. [[Chief Lawyer]] and one of his allied chiefs signed the treaty on behalf of the Nez Perce Nation, but Joseph the Elder and several other chiefs were opposed to selling their lands and did not sign.<ref>{{cite book |author=Josephy, Alvin M. Jr. |title=The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest |location=Boston |publisher=Mariner |date=1997 |pages=428–429 }}</ref><ref name="shogg">{{cite web |url=http://www.nezperce.com/npedu10.html |title=Political Elements of Nez Perce history during mid-1800s & War of 1877 |last=Hoggatt |first=Stan |year=1997 |publisher=Western Treasures |access-date=June 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323002830/http://www.nezperce.com/npedu10.html |archive-date=March 23, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="cfwilk">{{cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=Charles F. |title=Blood struggle: the rise of modern Indian nations |year=2005 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=0-393-05149-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bloodstruggleris00wilk/page/40 40–41] |url=https://archive.org/details/bloodstruggleris00wilk/page/40 }}</ref><ref name=desnewbmyh>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6AhQAAAAIBAJ&pg=2169%2C1430632 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |newspaper=Deseret News |agency=([[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee]]) |last=Brown |first=Dee |author-link=Dee Brown (writer) |title=Befriended whites, but Nez Perces suffered |date=August 9, 1971 |page=1A |access-date=November 14, 2020 |archive-date=May 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519154408/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6AhQAAAAIBAJ&pg=2169,1430632 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Their refusal to sign caused a rift between the "non-treaty" and "treaty" bands of Nez Perce. The "treaty" Nez Perce moved within the new reservation's boundaries, while the "non-treaty" Nez Perce remained on their ancestral lands. Joseph the Elder demarcated Wallowa land with a series of poles, proclaiming, "Inside this boundary all our people were born. It circles the graves of our fathers, and we will never give up these graves to any man."