Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/383

Rh question of Joseph's right to the Wallowa Valley in Oregon, his claim to which brought on the war of 1877 with that band of Nez Percés. Wood's pamphlet, which was written by the order of department commander Gen. O. O. Howard, furnishes much valuable information upon this rather obscure subject. Wood concludes from all the evidence that Joseph was chief of the upper or Salmon River branch of the Nez Percés, and that his claim to the Wallowa Valley as his especial home was not founded in facts as they existed at the time of the treaty of 1855, but that it was 'possessed in common by the Nez Percés as a summer resort to fish.' As the reservation took in both sides of the Snake River as far up as fifteen miles below the mouth of Powder River, and all the Salmon River country to the Bitter Root Mountains, and beyond the Clearwater as far as the southern branch of the Palouse, the western line beginning a little below the mouth of Alpowa Creek, it included all the lands ever claimed by the Nez Percés since the ratification of the treaty, much of which was little known to white men in 1855, and just which portion of it was reserved by Joseph is a matter of doubt, though Superintendent Palmer spoke of Joseph's band as 'the Salmon River band of the Nez Percés.' Wood's Young Joseph and the Treaties, 35.

Joseph had perhaps other reasons for objecting to Lawyer's advice. He claimed to be descended from a long line of chiefs, and to be superior in rank to Lawyer. The missionaries, because Joseph was a war chief, and because Lawyer exhibited greater aptitude in learning the arts of peace, endeavored to build up Lawyer's influence. When White tried his hand at managing Indians, he appointed over the Nez Percés a head chief, a practice which had been discontinued by the advice of the Hudson's Bay Company. On the death of Ellis, the head chief, whose superior acquirements had greatly strengthened his influence with the Nez Percés, it was Lawyer who aspired to the high chieftainship, on the ground of these same acquirements, and who had gained so much influence as to be named head chief when the commissioners interrogated the Nez Percés as to whom they should treat with for the nation. This was good ground for jealousy and discord, and a weighty reason why Joseph should not readily consent to the advice of Lawyer, even if there were no other. of the Nez Percés, showed his opposition by not coming to the council until the 8th, and behaving rudely when he did come. Up to almost the last day, Palmer, who had endeavored to obtain the consent of the Indians to one common reservation, finding them determined in their refusal, finally offered to reserve lands separately in their own country for those who objected to going upon the Nez Percé reservation, and on this proposition, harmony was apparently restored, all the chiefs except Kamiakin agreeing to it. The haughty Yakima would consent to nothing; but when appealed to by Stevens to make known his