The Nez-Perce Indians

the Rockies, Lewis and Clark ran into the Nez Perces Indians. The Indians helped Lewis and

The flight of the Nez Perce and the Cheyenne Odyssey/Exodus were two equally important parts of American Indian history. Nez Perce and the Northern Cheyenne shared a similar passion of wanting to be left alone in their lands but yet were forced off of them. Where they shared similarity they also had some differences in the specifics of their stories. This short paper will delve into the Nez Perce of the Far West and the Northern Cheyennes of the Great Plains and their truly admirable stories.

Chief Joseph was the leader of the Nez Percé, a Native American tribe that occupied the Wallowa Valley. In 1877 the United States ordered the Nez Percé to move to a reservation in Idaho. Chief Joseph resisted all efforts to force his tribe to the reservation, and began to lead his people towards Canada. General Oliver O. Howard, threatened the tribe with a cavalry attack. Over the time frame of four months, Chief Joseph and his group marched toward Canada, bearing the freezing temperatures. The journey consisted of several victories against the U.S. Force. However, it took a toll on the tribe. Chief Joseph and his people were completely exhausted. Having seen the great loss of his people, he surrendered. His surrender speech to General Howard shows the power of words through the use of appeals, arrangement, style, and tone.

Chief Joseph is the leader of the Nez Perce tribe. He led his tribe through many great accomplishments, although he had to end his success in a surrender. On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph and to announce his surrender speech in the midst of a battle. In his famous speech, I Will fight No More Forever, Chief Joseph effectively uses appeals like ethos, logos, and pathos.

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

Throughout the course of history there have been numerous accounts regarding Native American and European interaction. From first contact to Indian removal, the interaction was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, leading from times of peace to mini wars and rebellions staged by the Native American tribes. The first part of this essay will briefly discuss the pre-Columbian Indian civilizations in North America and provide simple awareness of their cultures, while the second part of this essay will explore all major Native American contact leading up to, and through, the American Revolution while emphasizing the impact of Spanish, French, and English explorers and colonies on Native American culture and vice versa. The third, and final, part of this essay will explore Native American interaction after the American Revolution with emphasis on westward expansion and the Jacksonian Era leading into Indian removal. Furthermore, this essay will attempt to provide insight into aspects of Native American/European interaction that are often ignored such as: gender relations between European men and Native American women, slavery and captivity of native peoples, trade between Native Americans and European colonists, and the effects of religion on Native American tribes.

1)Paleo-Indians, the first Americans lived in bands of fifteen to fifty people, and traveled within their territory to hunt. Archaic Indians experienced a warming climate. One of the results of the warming climate was better hunting. Forest grew larger with a greater variety of plants and animals. The changes allowed some Indians to reside in permanent homes. The ample supply of food allowed more peoples to live on less acreage. The weather also allowed for specialization of caring for plants; this was the beginning of controlling crops to better supply the people.

The soldiers told the Sioux that as long as they gave up some of their land they would give them a peace treaty.The Sioux no longer wanted to fight so they agreed and gave up some of their land to the government.

Due to receiving barren land from treaties, indigenous people depended on insufficient amounts of government rations, which often composed of items like food scraps. With few tools to support themselves and minimal assistance from the government, Native Americans faced a lack of opportunities to advance financially. Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe further described this lack of governmental assistance in 1879 when he said, “I cannot understand why so many chiefs [United States government officials] are allowed to…promise so many different things…I do not understand why nothing is done for my people.” Even after adhering to treaties and changing their customs, there was little potential for indigenous people to thrive in the United States because the government failed to uphold agreements with Native

the name is a form of positive respect towards the Native Americans. This becomes a

Nez Perce War - A band of Nez Perce Indians, led by a man called Chief Joseph by the white settlers, had some of their reservation taken away after gold was discovered on it. After a few young men in his tribe murdered four white settlers, a worried Chief Joseph took a group of more than 800 other Indians away from their reservation. The war officially started at the Battle of White Bird Canyon, on June 17, 1877. A series of battles then ensued, with most surprisingly ending with the victory of Chief Joseph, who many eventually considered a tactical

A government surveyor drew a line separating the Wallowa Valley. The Nez Perce objected. The Nez Perce claimed, “the Indians who signed the new treaty were the leaders of other bands and had no right to give up land that was not even theirs” (Williams & Youngs, 5). This is how the Non-Treaty came about. Soon the whites and Indians fought over the land and Indians were killed, one that was best friend with Joseph, he felt like he was is brother. Burial was granted to bury the Indian in the valley by General Howard.

The Flight of the Nez Perce, or The Nez Perce War was a time when the Nez Perce were tricked and had to flee to Canada. In a 1855 treaty during the Walla Walla Council the Nez Perce handed over part of their land and were insured that the rest of their land would be safe. Soon after, some members of the Nez Perce were tricked into selling 7 million acres of their territory in the 1860’s when gold was found on their land. The Nez Perce in the Wallowa Tribe were told to leave for a reservation in Idaho. When they were told to leave, some rebels that didn’t agree with the army attacked and killed a group of American civilians. The Wallowa tribe then split into two groups, one went to the reservation while the other tried to flee to Canada. The

The Native Americans, known as the Delaware, call themselves Lenni Lenape, which means the real people. Sometimes they are just called the Lenape. English settlers named them the Delaware because they lived in villages by the Delaware River. They originally lived in large territories that are New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The Delaware Tribe homes are called wigwams and they usually have an arched shaped frame of poles covered with tree bark, rush mats, and hides.

When Chief Joseph took leadership of his tribe from his father, Chief Joseph the Elder, the American government was attempting to move the Nez Perce off of their ancestral land in the Wallowa Valley, Oregon Territory into a reservation in Idaho to make room for the white settlers who were moving west. His goal was to protect his land by peaceful negotiation with the government. “Chief Joseph had been trying to secure his homeland for his tribe, the Nez Perce, without bloodshed.