Nez perce history chief joseph biography book

It recounts their attempt to accommodate the rapidly changing world around them, and it follows the life of Chief Joseph, one of their greatest peace leaders. Readers will learn how interactions with Lewis and Clark at the beginning of the 19th century and the subsequent duplicity of white settlers and their government radically changed the Nez Perce way of life—and influenced Joseph's rise.

Separating the real Chief Joseph from the myths that have grown around him, the book shows how he shepherded the Nez Perce people through the ordeals that confronted them, including the loss of their land and freedom and the persistent threats to the culture that had guided the Nez Perce for centuries. Read this book now. This is a test.

Share book. Book details Table of contents Citations. About this book This biography offers a chronological presentation of the major events in Nez Perce history and in the life of one of their greatest leaders, Joseph. The humanity of the tribe, the complexity of the leadership, the terror from ambushes by whites, and and adversity from increasingly cold weather as fall passed and winter approached in the NW mountains--this book gives us a much deeper understanding of the daily life of the Nez Perce throughout their flight.

You feel as though you are right there with them every step of the way. Highly recommend. By turns desperate and triumphant, Nerburn's Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce is an extensively researched, engrossing, and important story for anyone interested in our country's first Citizens. Excellent historical narrative, not just dry facts and dates.

An incredibly tragic part of U. This covers much more than just the Chief and the years of The Flight. Ashley Abate. Really great story-telling; as sad as the subject matter is, I could hardly put this down! Also a great reminder that the American government has been corrupt and incompetent for a loooong time. This is the way history needs to be told.

Piles of facts and the bland language of most text books can't convey what happened. It takes a great writer to make facts come alive. Nerburn is just that great writer who can fuse the facts and the story. As testament to Nerbern's skills as a writer, one reviewer here said he held himself to a few pages a day to make it last.

I erroneously thought that the Chief's famous words would come at the end of the story. This caused me to be confused by the map, until the middle of the book when "I will fight no more forever" is said and whole new story begins. Why didn't I know this? Every American should know this story, because it doesn't end with the famous quote. If Gen.

Howard had had his battlefield courage as an administrator, this grief might not have happened. He was willing to risk his life and lives of others to fight the Nez Perce, but not his career to help them. Unfortunately, this moral lack was all too common and as was the criminality of Indian agents, be they church or government representatives.

I particularly liked the way Nerburn presents his notes and sources. Not only is the book readable Having read nearly every book I could find about the Nez Perce see my 'Nez Perce' listI wondered how this book would compare. I also wondered if reading again about this history that I already know quite well would turn out to be less engrossing this time around.

Fortunately, this book measured up to my hopes. In fact, it is so well-written that I think I would recommend it as the best book for those who intend to read only one book on the subject. It seemed very accurate, yet not so detailed as to ever bog down. Personally, I would have preferred a little more detail about the locations and geography of the areas involved, but most readers will not be bothered by that.

It was also short on the military strategies and aspects, which was fine with me. The most unique part of this book was the final one third which describes the exile period of the non-treaty Nez Perce in much greater detail than any other work I have read. Overall, this is an easy-to-read, accurate, page-turning book. Great book, well-told history based more scholarly and archival research.

In the tradition of Mari Sandoz, writing from inside the Indians experience as much as possible. Shows how the myth of Joseph the noble warrior developed, even as he really was more of a spiritual and logistical leader above all else ie more concerned with making sure camps were organized well, the sick had food and were cared for, etc.

The ugly duplicity of even the sympathetic white population is well on display throughout - willing to lift Joseph and the Nez Perce up as an 'unfortunate' noble and peaceful tribe, but doing nothing to recognize and act in defense of their legitimate claims to their land and old ways. Of the or so Nez Perce that began the long exile in the Camas Prairie, less than returned 7 years later in and those divided up roughly half on their historic lands near completely occupied by white settlers and half incl Joseph to a reservation in northern Washington state.

An amazing account of a great and heroic people that went through the trials and tribulations, the horror and the agonies of coming into contact with white people. The murders and deaths of innocent women, men, elderly and children. These proud people being forced to nez perce history chief joseph biography book their home land when all they wanted was to live in peace and in their own ways.

They had no hatred for white people or Christianity. One man did not speak for them all, no one man ever did. As anyone would expect for promises to be kept and men to be true to their word. But instead they were told lies, deceit and deliberate falsehoods. A whole people were punished, destroyed and almost made extinct because of an unfortunate few angry youth that were weak with white man's alcohol.

Their anger of course completely understandable. This book is a great way of explaining what happened and who Chief Joseph was. This biography follows current historical thought that Joseph was not a war leader, but rather tried to serve as a protector of his people. A great historical read while spending the summer in western Montana, this book details events of the Nez Perce's brief resistance, their long, torturous journey from Wallowa Valley, OR to almost reach Canada, and covers their tragic experiences following surrender.

This is such a good story, told from the perspective of the people who lived it, written beautifully, told movingly, and researched painstakingly. Nerburn knows his stuff; he made a scholarly research project into a human-level history. Why didn't anyone compile all these sources into literature before? Well, I'm glad Nerburn did it. Everything thinks they remember something about Chief Joseph - "I will fight no more forever" - but here is the person, growing up, living a normal life, finding normalcy going away quickly on a fast horse, so to speak.

It feels real. It is real. There is a series on television entitled "American Greed" in my opinion, there is no stronger illustration of American Green than the greedy acquisition of the homeland of the people indigenous to the American continent, by our predecessors. Kent Nerburn's telling of this story is heartbreaking. His story is of the families that made up the Nez Perce Nation; it is a story of husbands and wives and their children, no different in love and affection than what I have for my family.

Mostly it is a story of a true, yet often unrecognized, leader in Chief Joseph, a leader who again and again placed his trust in a people and a government that kept only one promise, "We will take your land. This is a great book written in a purely narrative style, and very easily readable even to someone not interested in any critical analyzation.

This is also a sad book about a man who always tried to do right by his people and got sucked into fighting a war he did not want. He deserves all the praise given to him, but for different reasons than most people think. Military and captured 40 miles from their destination in Canada. I have known the tragic story of the Native Americans only from the victor's point of view.

This was an ugly stain on our nation's history as a governing people, but a portrait and testament of dedication and commitment of the native people and Chief Joseph. Powerful reading. Ben Zimmerman. I picked up this book on the recommendation of a colleague after visiting the astoundingly beautiful Wallowas in Eastern Oregon, where Chief Joseph was born.

In terms of style, this was one of the more interesting histories that I've read.

Nez perce history chief joseph biography book

Kent Nerburn wants to tell a story that the Nez Perce approve of, and so many of the details of the account come from memories that are passed on as historical fact. Since the concept of "spirit power" is so important to the people and the story, supernatural events are often presented as completely factual, giving the story a flavor of magical realism.

Some of the events are believable, even if you, like me, don't believe in spirit power. For example, I can imagine a group of people who respect spirit power would make group decisions based on dreams, even though I don't believe that dreams are accurate predictors of the future. But other occurences seem more far-fetched, such as the old man with a lot of spirit power, who gets shot, but only steam comes out of the wounds instead of blood.

Very cinematic, but not very believable. In some ways, this makes it difficult to assess the truth of whatever events occur in the book. But on the other hand, it keeps an interesting spotlight on the fact that history is more than a collection of facts and is always interpreted through the lenses of different human observers. Seeing the history told through the lens of the Nez Perce is extremely instructive because you realize that the models the Nez Perce have to interpret events are quite different from the prevailing Western model.

Often the incompatibility of these models with the Western model is at the root of why certain conflicts cannot be resolved. Certainly, the oppression, racism, and cruel treatment of the Indians by the people of the United States is the obvious root cause of the conflict, I don't mean to suggest otherwise The Nez Perce are strikingly democratic and also way more invested in freedom than the citizens of the United States.

Chiefs speak for their small groups of people and are raised from a young age to put the people before themselves and so are respected. But no one is really compelled to follow them. Everyone is assumed to be free to act as they feel they must and be responsible for their own actions. The "command" of the decisions of the Nez Perce, such as the trail chiefs during the retreat, is constantly in flux based on how the people think things are going, and not everyone stays with the group.

You're free to try to make it on your own. Everyone just thinks that sticking together is the most prudent. The U. So, for example, when Joseph "surrenders", the U. Some other people didn't make the same decision. In some ways, there is less of a conception of ownership, especially of land ownership, which is a trope that I've heard before.

How can you sell the land? But in other ways, there is a much, much deeper connection to a specific plot of land. This was the most heart-breaking aspect of the book to me. Chief Joseph's people were given the Wallowas at Creation. They were the people for that land, meant to be its stewards and also to live off of it forever. To be removed from it was like cutting the people off from their main purpose in the world forever.

The spirits you believed in and worshipped was an extremely practical thing for the Nez Perce, so there was a deep conflict between those who believed that the old ways were better and those who believed that Christianity was a more powerful spiritual path. I think this nez perce history chief joseph biography book conflict and the search for greater spiritual power underlies a lot more of the narrative than you usually hear about in history books.

The storytelling is great. Of course, the story is tragic and devastating, with good and evil characters on both sides of the conflict. This ought to be standard reading in American history high school courses. What a sad, difficult, challenging book. It was a biography of Chief Joseph the younger and focused on the flight of the Nez Perce Native Tribe he led on a mile diaspora in the 's.

Driven out of their native lands, hounded and pursued by the U S Army, relentless settlers and other Native tribes, their group shriveled from over souls to a couple hundred who finally made it back to the Idaho area a few years later. Joseph evolved from a line of Nez Perce chieftains. His Grandfather encountered Lewis and Clarke, and peacefully made agreements and welcomed the early pathfinders and settlers.

Joseph's father, himself raised as a chief, prepared his son, born infor the role as caretaker and leader of his people. But no amount of teaching, preparation or training would help Joseph deal with the onslaught of the White settlers and U S Government. I only knew a general story of what made Joseph unique, and knew he had been driven from his land and chased all over the West.

I never realized the depths of what he endured, as he tried to compromise in order to return to his homeland and honor his heritage. Kent Nerburn is one of my favorite authors who can record history and tell a compelling story. His books are engrossing and sensitive. In fact, Joseph had virtually no role in the military exploits that marked that campaign.

This is only one of the countless myths about the legendary leader. Convert currency. Add to basket. Condition: Good. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory Contact seller. Seller: suffolkbooksCenter moriches, NY, U. Condition: VeryGood.

Fast Shipping - Safe and Secure 7 days a week!. A good condition hardcover ex-library book with usual library markings, clean text pages, and moderate cover wear. No dust jacket. Booksavers receives donated books and recycles them in a variety of ways. Seller Inventory mon