"The Valley of Winding Waters": Chief Joseph Speaks, 1879

Source Chief Joseph's 1879 speech and explain how land, rivers and trails shaped the Nez Perce homeland and its loss.

Answer Key

The land and the people

Read the described map and the passage. Then answer the questions.

Described map: Nez Perce country and beyond
1. The Wallowa Valley, in northeastern Oregon, a high valley of meadows ringed by mountains.
2. The Snake River, east of the Wallowa, running through a deep canyon along today's Oregon–Idaho border.
3. Lapwai, Idaho, east of the Snake River near the Clearwater River, the center of the reservation after 1863.
4. Lewiston, Idaho, where the Clearwater River flows into the Snake.
5. The Lolo Trail, a path east over the Bitterroot Mountains into Montana.
6. The Bear Paw Mountains, on the plains of northern Montana, about 40 miles south of Canada.

Nimiipuu Country

1The Nez Perce call themselves Nimiipuu, "the people." Their homeland lies where today's Idaho, Oregon and Washington meet. There the Snake, Clearwater and Salmon rivers have cut deep canyons between high plateaus and mountain valleys. Nez Perce bands moved with the seasons. In winter, they lived in villages in the sheltered canyon bottoms, where snow was lighter. In spring and summer, they moved up to fish for salmon, dig camas roots in the meadows and graze large herds of horses on upland grass, as in the high Wallowa Valley. Some bands also crossed the Bitterroot Mountains on the Lolo Trail to hunt bison on the plains of Montana.

2In 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition came west over the Lolo Trail, cold and starving, and Nez Perce families fed the men and kept their horses through the winter. In the 1840s, the Oregon Trail carried thousands of settlers across the Blue Mountains, just west of Nez Perce country, toward the farmland of the Willamette Valley. By the 1870s, homesteaders and railroads were filling much of the Great Plains, and ranchers looked farther west for open grass.

3In an 1855 treaty, the Nez Perce kept a large reservation that included the Wallowa Valley. In 1860, gold was found on that reservation, and thousands of miners rushed in; the town of Lewiston grew up where the Snake and Clearwater rivers meet. In 1863, U.S. officials made a new treaty that shrank the reservation to about one-tenth of its size. Leaders whose bands lived inside the new line signed it. Bands whose homes lay outside, including the Wallowa band of Old Joseph and later his son, Joseph, refused. During the 1870s, settlers drove cattle into the Wallowa's meadows.

4In 1877, the army ordered the bands that had not signed to move onto the smaller reservation within 30 days. Joseph's band crossed the Snake River while it ran high with melting snow and lost many animals. Before the bands reached the reservation, some young warriors killed several settlers, and war broke out. Several hundred Nez Perce men, women and children fled east over the Lolo Trail and across Montana, covering more than 1,100 miles as army columns pursued them. In October 1877, in the Bear Paw Mountains, Joseph and most of those still with him surrendered; some escaped to Canada.

5The army sent the prisoners to Kansas and then to Indian Territory, where many died of disease. In 1885, the survivors were allowed to return to the Northwest, some to Lapwai and others, including Joseph, to the Colville Reservation in Washington. Joseph was never allowed to live in the Wallowa again, and he died at Colville in 1904. Today the Nez Perce Tribe governs its reservation from Lapwai, Idaho, and descendants of Joseph's band live on the Colville Reservation.

Based on paragraph 1, why did Nez Perce bands live in the canyon bottoms in winter and move to the uplands in summer?

A. The rivers froze solid in summer, so they had to leave the canyons.
B. Canyons gave shelter from snow; uplands gave grass, roots and fish.
C. The canyons held gold, and the uplands held the best farmland.
D. A treaty with the United States told them where to live in each season.

Underline the sentence from paragraph 1 that best shows why the Wallowa Valley mattered to Nez Perce horse herds in summer.

Nez Perce bands moved with the seasons.In winter, they lived in villages in the sheltered canyon bottoms, where snow was lighter.In spring and summer, they moved up to fish for salmon, dig camas roots in the meadows and graze large herds of horses on upland grass, as in the high Wallowa Valley.Some bands also crossed the Bitterroot Mountains on the Lolo Trail to hunt bison on the plains of Montana.

Which chain best shows how the gold discovery of 1860 led to the loss of the Wallowa Valley?

A. Treaty shrinks the reservation → gold found → miners leave
B. Miners rush in → Lewis and Clark arrive → gold found
C. Gold found → miners rush in → treaty shrinks the reservation
D. Settlers bring cattle → gold found → reservation grows

Use the map and paragraph 4. In 1877, Joseph's band set out from the Wallowa Valley for Lapwai. Which part of the land made the trip dangerous?

A. The open plains of northern Montana near Canada
B. The dry Blue Mountains on the Oregon Trail
C. The steep Lolo Trail over the Bitterroot Mountains
D. The deep Snake River canyon in spring flood

Use paragraphs 3 to 5. Subtract the years.

The 1863 treaty came 8 years after the 1855 treaty. Joseph died 27 years after he surrendered.

Source the speech

Read the source note first. Then read the adapted excerpt and answer the questions.

Source note: adapted and shortened from a speech by Joseph (Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it) in Washington, D.C., in January 1879, published in the North American Review that April. Joseph spoke in the Nez Perce language to lawmakers, officials and other listeners, asking that his people be allowed to return to their homeland. Arthur Chapman, an interpreter who had also worked for the army during the 1877 war, put his words into English.

"My father sent for me when he was dying. He said: 'My son, this country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.' I pressed his hand and promised. I buried him in that beautiful valley of winding waters. I love that land more than all the rest of the world.
"The government says it bought our country by the treaty of 1863. But we never signed it. Suppose a white man comes to me and says, 'Joseph, I like your horses, and I want to buy them.' I say no. Then he goes to my neighbor and says, 'Joseph has good horses. Sell them to me.' My neighbor sells them. Then the white man comes back and says, 'Joseph, I have bought your horses, and you must let me have them.' That is how the government says it bought our country.
"Let me be a free man: free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose. I only ask to be treated as all other men are treated."

Use the source note. What was Joseph's main purpose in giving this speech?

A. To thank Arthur Chapman for his work as an interpreter
B. To ask the army to pay the costs of the 1877 war
C. To sell the Wallowa Valley for a fair price to settlers
D. To persuade officials to let his people return to their homeland

What point does Joseph make with the story about the horses?

A. Other leaders signed away land that was not theirs to sell.
B. His band had sold its horses to settlers before the war began.
C. Horses were worth more to his people than the valley was.
D. The government paid his band a fair price for its land.

Corroborate the speech. Which detail from the passage best supports Joseph's claim that his band never signed the 1863 treaty?

A. During the 1870s, settlers drove cattle into the Wallowa's meadows.
B. Nez Perce families fed the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805.
C. The Wallowa band and others outside the line refused to sign.
D. Lewiston grew up where the Snake and Clearwater rivers meet.

Which fact in the source note should make a historian most careful about the speech's exact wording?

A. Joseph asked that his people be allowed to go home.
B. An interpreter who had worked for the army put it into English.
C. Joseph gave the speech in the city of Washington, D.C.
D. The speech was published in a magazine a few months later.

10.

A classmate says the Nez Perce are a people of the past. Which detail on this page best shows that this is wrong?

A. The Nez Perce Tribe governs its reservation from Lapwai today.
B. Joseph spoke to lawmakers in Washington, D.C., in 1879.
C. Joseph died at the Colville Reservation in 1904.
D. Nez Perce bands once hunted bison on the plains of Montana.

11.

Claim: "Geography helps explain why the Wallowa Valley became a place of conflict." Do you agree or disagree? Make your own claim, use at least two pieces of evidence from the map, the passage or the speech, and explain your reasoning.

I agree. The Wallowa is a high valley of meadows, and paragraph 1 says the Nez Perce grazed large herds of horses on its upland grass each summer, so it was a key part of their seasonal round. Joseph called it the "valley of winding waters" and said he loved it more than all the rest of the world because his father was buried there. The same grass drew outsiders: by the 1870s ranchers were looking west for open grass, and settlers drove cattle into the Wallowa's meadows. Gold found on the reservation in 1860 brought miners and led to the 1863 treaty, which left the Wallowa outside the new reservation even though Joseph's band never signed it. Geography also shaped the war itself, since the band lost many animals crossing the flooded Snake River canyon. Geography is not the whole story, because the treaty and the army's order were choices people made, but the valley's rich grass is a big reason both sides wanted it.