Hidden in the shadow cast by the great western expeditions of Lewis and Clark lies another journey every bit as poignant, every bit as dramatic, and every bit as essential to an understanding of who we are as a nation — the 1,800-mile journey made by Chief Joseph and eight hundred Nez Perce men, women, and children from their homelands in what is now eastern Oregon through the most difficult, … mountainous country in western America to the high, wintry plains of Montana. There, only forty miles from the Canadian border and freedom, Chief Joseph, convinced that the wounded and elders could go no farther, walked across the snowy battlefield, handed his rifle to the U.S. military commander who had been pursuing them, and spoke his now-famous words, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”
The story has been told many times, but never before in its entirety or with such narrative richness. Drawing on four years of research, interviews, and 20,000 miles of travel, Nerburn takes us beyond the surrender to the captives’ unlikely welcome in Bismarck, North Dakota, their tragic eight-year exile in Indian Territory, and their ultimate return to the Northwest. Nerburn reveals the true, complex character of Joseph, showing how the man was transformed into a myth by a public hungry for an image of the noble Indian and how Joseph exploited the myth in order to achieve his single goal of returning his people to their homeland.
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The real meaning of a natural self governing democracy based on individual choice while caring for the less capable. An alternate system that worked for endless millennia from argentina to alaska. Conquest and domination in servitude was the European model. This came through. The politics of hunter gatherer societies. An eye opener thought …
I want to know all about this books
This book was so sad I almost couldn’t read it, but as an American, I needed to know this story. It’s not a difficult book to read and the concepts are easy to grasp, but it’s hard to understand how such things happened and still happen. It’s a good history lesson that’s also applicable to today.
A tragic tale of what happened to the Nez Perce. A tribe torn apart & misunderstood.
Well researched and presented from the Indian experience point of view. Realize what were classified as “savages” were just attempting to protect their way of life and that the US government never lived up to its obligations in the so called treaties made with the Nez Peres tribe.
The story of how the Nez Perce avoided and defeated 3 United States military units before being trapped 40 miles from the Canadian border, and how the dignified camp chief of one band, Joseph, became the face of the American Indian.
I thought the book was interesting and informative. I felt the author had done a good job in researching the information. What I didn’t like was the repetition of some of the information. I thought the author repeated himself much too much.
Learned a lot from this book.
I’ve always been fascinated with Chief Joseph, but didn’t know much about the entirely of his life and his struggles to keep his people free to practice their native religion and way of life. This book is a tragic account of a people and a great leader who lived in a time of Manifest Destiny and the certainty by whites encroaching on the Nez Perce …
Lost Interest
This is probably as close to the truth of the flight of the nez perce’ as one is going to get. Interesting how even when white America tries to honor a native American, they get the story wrong.
I came away with mixed emotions for his people. They followed their leader no matter how difficult their lifestyle became. Joseph could not break his vow to his father and he could not and would not adapt to a changing world.
Incredible information on a story I have been vaguely aware of…but this is the true information told in a story-like way that made me not put it down. Excellent history. Excellent information. Wonderfully written to keep the reader engaged
I never had read Old West history from a Native American point of view, and it is amazing to me that this author was able to tell such an interesting historical account from the Nez Perce’s point of view, especially of how they suffered. It gave me compassion for their plight in North America. I love historical fiction books about the Old West, …
I appreciated this book with the author’s view of Joseph as a man, not just as the legend created by those who new him least. I felt it was well written and showed areas of suffering after the flight itself that I was unaware of before this book. Every school aged student should read this book.
An eye opening story of a legend of Northwest history. Well done.
Sad, but incredible.