Chief Joseph

This great Chief’s Indian name Heinmot’tooyalakekt meant “Thunder Traveling to High Places Then Returning”. He received it from his Father who considered thunder he heard shortly after his son’s birth to be an omen from the Great Spirit. As an omen it had validity.

Joseph, as he became known to settlers and historians, led his people in a revolt against mandatory resettlement in 1877. He was never a war chief; he was a civic chief but his diplomatic skills were ignored or swept aside by Washington bureaucrats and politicians in a series of Treaty betrayals and broken promises. By 1877 Joseph and three allied chiefs had suffered enough and he led his people on a five month trek that exceeded 1500 miles through what are now the States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. At every step, with less than 200 warriors, he defeated and humiliated Washington’s great Army of the Northwest until finally, with safety in Canada a mere 45 miles away his people, hungry and without adequate supplies, could resist no longer. Although more than 300 of the refugees escaped to Canada, Joseph and the remainder sued for peace. He made an honorable agreement with the two generals involved but that pact was also torn up by their political masters in Washington. The sub-title, Trail of Glory and Sorrow, tells the story in one line. The first part of his trail is The Glory and the second part is The Sorrow.

Although several books about this illustrious chief have been written most cover only segments of his life. None cover the entire Trail from his birth c.1840 to his death in 1904. None explain the reasons for the revolt or the aftermath. None cast the blame upon those most responsible for the revolt – two US Presidents, several State and Territorial Governors, three ranking generals, a rogue missionary and dozens of minor federal bureaucrats. This book covers the entire Trail of Glory and Sorrow.