Chief Joseph, Nez Perce Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt 

(1840-1904)

"From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever."

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.

Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here to dispose of us as you see fit. If I thought you were sent by the Creator, I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me.
Do not misunderstand me, but understand fully with reference to my affection for the land.
I never said the land was mine to do with as I choose. The one who has a right to dispose of it is the one who has created it.
I claim a right to live on my land
and accord you the privilege to return to yours. Brother, we have listened to your talk coming from the father in Washington, and my people have called upon me to reply to you.
And in the winds which pass through these aged pines we hear the moaning of their departed ghosts. And if the voices of our people could have been heard,
that act would never have been done. But alas, though they stood around, they could neither be seen nor heard.
Their tears fell like drops of rain.
I hear my voice in the depths of the forest, but no answering voice comes back to me. All is silent around me. My words must therefore be few. I can say no more. He is silent, for he has nothing to answer when the sun
goes down.

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