Chief Joseph was a Native American man that was born on March 3, 1840, in Wallowa Valley on Oregon Territory. He was originally named Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain, but was mainly called Joseph and also Joseph the Younger after is father. His father was a man who turned Christian and kept his Christianity by trying to make peace with whites and even helped set up reservations for the Nez Perce tribe, but in around 1863, feds took about 6 million acres of the Nez Perce reservations, making their reservation land limited in Idaho and so Joseph the Younger’s father didn’t take it lightly and destroyed his bible and the American flag and would not leave his land and would not sign another treaty saying that he would make the new boundaries given official. And so after Joseph’s father passed away in 1871 Joseph took his place and took his name.

After Joseph took his father’s place the federal government let Joseph’s band stay on their reservations until they changed their mind in 1877, and gave a man named Oliver Otis Howard orders to threaten to attack unless Joseph moved his band to the new reservation areas and so Joseph did so moving his people towards Idaho. Though, the Nez Perce never got to Idaho, people from the tribe that were enraged about the move stayed behind and raided settlements killing whites. Then after that the U.S. Army started to search and attack the rest of Joseph’s band and any other people who had not gotten to the new reservation.

Finally after a battle between the Natives and Americans, Joseph surrendered on October 5, 1877. Joseph wasn’t really the type to start a war so that explains why he surrendered although his younger brother, Olikut, was the one who led his warriors while Joseph was just watching out for the safety of his people. To me I feel he was more concerned for his people and that he just didn’t like fighting. After all the surrendering and fighting passed Chief Joseph, along with his people were taken to a reservation in an Indian territory, in eastern Kansas. While in the area Chief Joseph lost many of his people to epidemic diseases. Many years after that in around 1885 Joseph and other refugees were taken to a non-Nez Perce reservation leaving the rest of his people behind in Idaho and in Wallowa Valley.

Chief Joseph died in 1904