The Words of Chief Joesph
[On a visit to Washington, D.C., 1879]
At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and
bring my friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I
am glad I came. I have shaken hands with a good many
friends, but there are some things I want to know which no
one seems able to explain. I cannot understand how the
Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did General
Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government has some-
thing wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs
are allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so
many different things. I have seen the Great Father Chief
[President Hayes]; the Next Great Chief [Secretary of the
Interior]; the Commissioner Chief; the Law Chief; and many
other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they all say they are my
friends, and that I shall have justice, but while all their
mouths 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 do not
pay for my country now overrun by white men. They do not
protect my father's grave. They do not pay for my horses
and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children.
Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief,
General Miles. Good words will not give my people a home
where they can live in peace and take care of themselves.
I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart
sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken
promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no
right to talk. Too many misinterpretations have been made;
too many misunderstandings 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 in peace. There need be
no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws.
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
all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a
free man should be contented 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 a
small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will
not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked
some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their
authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one
place, while he sees white men going where they please.
They cannot tell me.
I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men
are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a
home in a country where my people will not die so fast. I
would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people
would be happy; where they are now they are dying. Three
have died since I left my camp to come to Washington.
When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men
of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country
to country, or shot down like animals.
I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with
the white men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live
as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask
that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian
breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks
the law, punish him also.
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to
work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own
teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to
talk, think and act for myself -- and I will obey every law
or submit to the penalty.
Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each
other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike
-- brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us
and one country around us and one government 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 upon the face of the earth. For this time
the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope 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.
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