The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-04-03
CHIEF JOSEPH.

CHIEF JOSEPH.
An Indians Eloquent Defense of His People.
The North american Reuieau for
April prints an extraordinary narrative
by Chief Joseph. of the Nez Perces
tribe of Indians. As a specimen of Ia
dian eloquence it has rarely, if ever,
been surpassed. The famous chief re-
views the history of the Governments
dealings with his tribe, gives his YER
sion of the recent Nez Perces war. and
closes as follows:
At last was granted permission to come to
washington and bring my friend Yellow Bull
and our interpreter with me- I am glad we
came. l have shaken hands with q great many
friends, but there are some things want to
know which no one seems able to explain I
can notunderstand how the Government sends
man out to fight us, as it did Gen. Miles. and
then breaks his word. Such Government has
something wrong about it. can not under
stand why SO many chiefs are allowed to talk 80
many different ways, and promise so many diff
ferent things. I have seen the Great Father
Chief (the President, the next Great
Chief Secretary of the Interior), the
Commissioner Cor m is Chief (HasN,, the Law
Congressman, and they all say they are my
friends, and that shall have justice, but while
their mouths all talk right I do not understand
why nothing is done for my people, I have
heard talk and talk, but nothing is done Good
words do not last long unless they amount to
something. Words do not pay for my dead
people They donot pay for my country, now
my fathers grave. They do not pay for all my
horses and cattle. Good words will no. give me
back my children. Good words will not
make good the promise of your,,War Chief, Gen.
Miles, Good words will not give my people
good health and stop them from dying. Good
words will not get my people home where
they can live in peace and take care of them
selves [ am tired of talk that comes to moth
ing. 1t makes my heart sick when remember
all the good words and all the broken promises.
There has been too much talking by men who
have no right to talk. Too many misrepre-
sensations have been made, too many misunder-
standings have come up between the white men
and the Indians. If the white man wants to live
in peace with the Indian he can live ia peace
There need be no trouble Treat all men alike
Give them all the same law Give them all an
even chance to live and grow. All men were
made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They
are all brothers. The earth is the mother Of
all people, and all people should have equal
rights upon it. You might as well expect
the rivers to run backward as that any man who
was born free man should be contented when
penned up and denied liberty to go where he
pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you
expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian
up on small spot of earth, and compel him to
stay there, he will not be contented, nor will he
grow and prosper. [ have asked some of the
great white chiefs where they get their author
ity to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one
place, while he sees white men going where
they please. They can not tell me.
I only ask of the Government to be treated
as all other men are treated. If can not go to
my own home, let me have home in some
country where my people will not die so fast I
would like to go to Bitter Root valley. There
my people would be healthy where they are
now they are dying. Three have died since
left my camp to come to Washington.
When I think of our condition my heart is
heavy. see men of my race treated as out
laws and driven from country to country, or
shot down like animals
[ know that my race must change. We can
not hold our own with the white men as we are.
We only ask an even chance to live as other men
ask that the same law shall work alike on all
men. If the Indian breaks the law, punish
him by the law. If the white man breaks the
law, punish him ALSO
Let me be free man-free to travel, free to
stop, free to work, free to trade where choose,
free to choose my own teachers, free to follow
the religion of my fathers, free to think and
talk and act for myself--and will obey every
law, or submit to the penalty.
Whenever the white man treats the Indian as
they treat each other, then we will have no
more wars We shall all be alike brothers of
one father and one mother, with one sky above
us and one country around us, and one Govern
ment for all Then the Great Spirit Chief who
rules above will smile upon this land, and send
rain to wash out the bloody spots made by
brothers hands from the face of the earth.
For this time the Indian race are waiting and
praying. I hope that no more groans of
wounded men and women will ever go to the
ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all
people may be one people. e
n-mut-too yah-lat-lat has spoken for his
people. YOUNG JOSEPH