Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce - Tonkawa OK - Oklahoma Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

~ text from the marker ~
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

"Hear me my Chiefs, I am tired, my heart is sick and sad from where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever"

With these words, chief Joseph of the Nez Perce surrendered to Colonel Nelson A. Miles of the United States Army and thus began an eight-year exile of these people from their homeland in Idaho. Refusing to be herded onto a reservation, the Nez Perce described by Miles as "A very bright and energetic body of Indians, indeed the most intelligent that I had ever seen," fled eastward in 1877 to find refuge in Canada with only 250 warriors. Chief Joseph held the military at bay for 15 weeks during at least a dozen encounters and a 1700 mile chase before being forced to surrender at Bear Paw Mountain thirty miles from the Canadian border.

The Nez Perce were moved to Fort Levenworth, Kansas in November 1877, and the following year to the Quapaw Agency near Baxter Springs, Kansas. Finally, in 1879, they were placed on the Oakland Reservation, west of the Chickaskia River and north of the Salt Fork of the Arkansas River in Indian Territory, present site of Tonkawa, Oklahoma. Here, the Nez Perce made a substantial effort to become economically self-sufficient by leasing agreements with area ranchers they also established a Day School which attracted both adults and children. Nevertheless, the Nez Perce could not be acclimated. The death rate was abnormally high, and they continued to seek a return to their homeland.

Finally in May of 1884, petitions presented in Congress, demanding action upon the repatriation of the Nez Perce bore fruit and the Indian Appropriation Bill providing funds for such a move was passed. The Bill became a law on July 4. Whereupon Secretary of the Interior, Henry M. Teller and Commissioner of Indian Affairs, H. Price authorized the removal. Chief Joseph and his group where to be placed upon the Colville Reservation in Northern Washington instead of their homeland near Lapwai, Idaho.

The plan was not pleasing to Chief Joseph or his followers who objected that they had been punished enough and would not voluntarily consent to further humiliation. The segregation, they said, would brand them as "wild". "If I could, I would take my heart out and hold it in my hand and let the Great Father and the white people see that there is nothing in it but kind feelings and love for him and them," said Chief Joseph on May 22, 1885. Before boarding the train at Arkansas City, four Nez Perce Chiefs signed a document relinquishing all claims to the Oakland Reservation during their sojourn in Indian Territory over 100 of the Nez Perce children had died, including Chief Joseph's daughter. Thus before departing, Joseph had the burial ground enclosed by a log barrier in order that the graves might be preserved.

Tonkawa Historical Society
Oklahoma Historical Society

County: Kay Record Address:: Highway 60, Tonkawa, OK United States Rate the Site: Sponsor (Who put it there): Tonkawa & Oklahoma Historical Societies Web site if available: Not listed Date Erected: Not listed

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