Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/74

The Story of the Bitter Root of its own famous protest against this same form of oppression. "Taxation without representation is tyranny," declared the patriot fathers, and several hundred chests of taxed tea cast upon the waters of Boston Harbor proclaimed their sentiment in concrete terms. So, at this centennial time, the Government looked approvingly upon the festivities of its Chosen, while it calmly discussed the same scheme of taxation for another distressed people—not for revenue only, but as a means to gain the property taxed.

Five years; the confiscation scheme seems to have failed:

"The whole Flathead tribe, consisting of nearly four hundred souls, with the exception of the few families who removed to this agency, adhere to Charlos and follow his fortunes, choosing rather to eke out a livelihood by their own exertions in the neighborhood of their venerated chief than to accept the bounty of the Government and leave their homes. . . ."

The summer of 1877 was an eventful one in the mountains of the Northwest. A portion of the Nez Perces in Idaho, under Chief Joseph, refused the demand of the Government for the evacuation of their valley and location on a reservation. Troops were hurried to the valley, and the command to move was repeated with a show of force. This led to murder, and murder to war. The Nez Perces, 61