Editing Chief Joseph (section)

==Nez Perce War==
{{main|Nez Perce War}}
[[File:Flight of the Nez Perce-1877-map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.10|Map of the flight of the Nez Perce and key battle sites]]
The U.S. Army's pursuit of about 750 Nez Perce and a small allied band of the [[Palouse people|Palouse tribe]], led by Chief Joseph and others, as they attempted to escape from Idaho became known as the [[Nez Perce War]]. Initially they had hoped to take refuge with the [[Crow Nation]] in the [[Montana Territory]], but when the Crow refused to grant them aid, the Nez Perce went north in an attempt to obtain asylum with the [[Lakota people|Lakota]] band led by [[Sitting Bull]], who had fled to Canada following the [[Great Sioux War]] in 1876. In ''Hear Me, My Chiefs!: Nez Perce Legend and History'', Lucullus V. McWhorter argues that the Nez Perce were a peaceful people that were forced into war by the United States when their land was stolen from them. McWhorter interviewed and befriended Nez Perce warriors such as [[Yellow Wolf (Nez Perce)|Yellow Wolf]], who stated, "Our hearts have always been in the valley of the Wallowa".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Hear Me, My Chiefs!: Nez Perce Legend and History |last=McWhorter |first=Lucullus V. |publisher=Caxton Press |year=1952 |pages=542 }}</ref>

Robert Forczyk states in his book ''Nez Perce 1877: The Last Fight'' that the tipping point of the war was that "Joseph responded that his clan's traditions would not allow him to cede the Wallowa Valley".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Nez Perce 1877: The Last Fight |last=Forczyk |first=Robert |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2013 |pages=8, 41, 45 }}</ref> The band led by Chief Joseph never signed the treaty moving them to the Idaho reservation. General Howard, who was dispatched to deal with Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce, tended to believe the Nez Perce were right about the treaty: "the new treaty finally agreed upon excluded the Wallowa, and vast regions besides".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Nez Perce Joseph: an account of his ancestors, his lands, his confederates, his enemies, his murders, his war, his pursuit and capture. |last=Howard |first=Oliver |publisher=Lee and Shepard |year=1881 |location=Boston, MA |pages=17 }}</ref>

For over three months, the Nez Perce deftly outmaneuvered and battled their pursuers, traveling more than {{convert|1170|mi|km|-1}} across present-day [[Oregon]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], [[Idaho]], [[Wyoming]], and [[Montana]]. One of those battles was led by Captain Perry and two cavalry companies of the U.S. Army led by Captain Trimble and Lieutenant Theller,<ref>{{cite book |last=Sharfstein |first=Daniel |date=2019 |title=Thunder in the Mountains |location=New York, NY |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |page=246 }}</ref> who engaged Chief Joseph and his people at [[Battle of White Bird Canyon|White Bird Canyon]] on June 17, 1877. The Nez Perce repelled the attack, killing 34 soldiers, while suffering only three Nez Perce wounded. The Nez Perce continued to repel the Army's advances, eventually reaching the [[Clearwater River (Idaho)|Clearwater River]], where they united with another Nez Perce chief, Looking Glass, and his group, bringing the size of their party to 740, though only 200 of these were warriors.<ref name=":0" /> The final battle of the Nez Perce War occurred approximately {{convert|40 |miles}} south of the Canadian border where the Nez Perce were camped on Snake Creek near the [[Bears Paw Mountains]], close to present-day [[Chinook, Montana|Chinook]] in [[Blaine County, Montana]]. A U.S. Army detachment commanded by General [[Nelson A. Miles]] and accompanied by [[Cheyenne]] scouts intercepted the Nez Perce on September 30 at the [[Battle of Bear Paw]]. After his initial attacks were repelled, Miles violated a truce and captured Chief Joseph; however, he would later be forced to exchange Chief Joseph for one of his captured officers.<ref name=":0" />

General Howard arrived on October 3, leading the opposing cavalry, and was impressed with the skill with which the Nez Perce fought, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications. Following a devastating five-day siege during freezing weather, with no food or blankets and the major war leaders dead, Chief Joseph formally [[Surrender (military)|surrendered]] to General Miles on the afternoon of October 5, 1877. The battle is remembered in popular history by the words attributed to Joseph at the formal surrender:

{{quote|Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. 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, to see how many I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.<ref name="Leckie">{{cite book |last=Leckie |first=Robert |title=The Wars of America |publisher=Castle Books |year=1998 |page=[https://archive.org/details/warsofamerica00robe/page/537 537] |isbn=0-7858-0914-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/warsofamerica00robe/page/537 }}</ref>}}

The popular legend deflated, however, when the original pencil draft of the report was revealed to show the handwriting of the later poet and lawyer Lieutenant [[Charles Erskine Scott Wood]], who claimed to have taken down the great chief's words on the spot. In the margin it read, "Here insert Joseph's reply to the demand for surrender".<ref name=One>{{cite book |author=Walsh, James Morrow |author-link=James Morrow Walsh |title=Walsh Papers |publisher=MG6, Public [[Archives of Manitoba]] |location=Winnipeg |date=n.d. }}</ref><ref name=Two>{{cite book |author=Brown, Mark M. |title=The Flight of the Nez Perce |location=Lincoln |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |pages=407–08, 428 }}</ref>

Although Joseph was not technically a war chief and probably did not command the retreat, many of the chiefs who did had died. His speech brought attention, and therefore credit, his way. He earned the praise of General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] and became known in the press as "The Red  [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]]". However, as Francis Haines argues in ''Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Warrior'', the battlefield successes of the Nez Perce during the war were due to the individual successes of the Nez Perce men and not that of the fabled military genius of Chief Joseph. Haines supports his argument by citing L. V. McWhorter, who concluded "that Chief Joseph was not a military man at all, that on the battlefield he was without either skill or experience".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Haines |first=Francis |date=1954 |title=Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Warriors |journal=The Pacific Northwest Quarterly |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=1 }}</ref> Furthermore, Merle Wells argues in ''The Nez Perce and Their War'' that the interpretation of the Nez Perce War of 1877 in military terms as used in the United States Army's account distorts the actions of the Nez Perce. Wells supports his argument: "The use of military concepts and terms is appropriate when explaining what the whites were doing, but these same military terms should be avoided when referring to Indian actions; the United States use of military terms such as 'retreat' and 'surrender' has created a distorted perception of the Nez Perce War, to understand this may lend clarity to the political and military victories of the Nez Perce."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wells |first=Merle |date=1964 |title=The Nez Perce and Their War |journal=The Pacific Northwest Quarterly |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=35–37 }}</ref>