I NDIGENOUS P EOPLES AND P OLITICS Edited by Franke Wilmer Montana State University A ROUTLEDGE SERIES INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND POLITICS FRANKE WILMER, General Editor INVENTING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE Archaeology, Rural Development, and the Raised Field Rehabilitation Project in Bolivia Lynn Swartley THE GLOBALIZATION OF CONTENTIOUS POLITICS The Amazonian Indigenous Rights Movement Pamela L. Martin CULTURAL INTERMARRIAGE IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIA Cherokee Elements in Four Selected Novels by Lee Smith Katerina Prajnerova STORIED VOICES IN NATIVE AMERICAN TEXTS Harry Robinson, Thomas King, James Welch, and Leslie Marmon Silko Blanca Schorcht ON THE STREETS AND IN THE STATE HOUSE American Indian and Hispanic Women and Environmental Policymaking in New Mexico Diane-Michele Prindeville CHIEF JOSEPH, YELLOW WOLF, AND THE CREATION OF NEZ PERCE HISTORY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST Robert R. McCoy ROUTLEDGE New York & London Published in 2004 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group. This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Copyright © 2004 Routledge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be printed or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or here- after invented, including photocopying and recording, or any other informa- tion storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication data McCoy, Robert R. (Robert Ross), 1962- Chief Joseph, Yellow Wolf, and the creation of Nez Perce history in the Pacific northwest / Robert R. McCoy p. cm.—(Indigenous peoples and politics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 0-415-94889-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Nez Percé Indians—Historiography. 2. Nez Percé Indians—Cultural assimilation. 3. Nez Percé Indians—Public opinion. 4. Ethnohistory—Pacific, Northwest. 5. Assimilation (Sociology)—Northwest, Pacific. 6. Joseph, Nez Percé Chief, 1840-1904. 7. Yellow Wolf, 1855-1935. 8. National characteristics, American. 9. Public opinion—Northwest, Pacific. I. Title. II. Series. E99.N5M22 2004 979.5004d974124d0072073—dc22 2003021146 ISBN 0-203-49365-6 Master e-book ISBN Contents List of Figures vii Foreword ix Preface xiii Chapter One Ghosts of the Whitmans 1 Chapter Two Coyote and the Nez Perce 13 Chapter Three Coyote Meets Monster 43 Chapter Four Words and Boundaries: Missionaries, Settlers, and Treaties 69 Chapter Five Monster Inhaled the People 99 Chapter Six The Consuming Silence: The Nez Perce in the Stomach of Monster 145 v vi Contents Epilogue 185 Notes 191 Bibliography 233 Index 239 List of Figures Figure 1 The Stick Game played by Columbia Plateau Indian People 33 Figure 2 A Sweathouse used for ritual cleansing 37 Figure 3 Heart of the Monster near Kamiah, Idaho 40 Figure 4 Chief Lawyer, circa 1861 89 Figure 5 Ollokot, Brother of Chief Joseph 113 Figure 6 Yellow Wolf, 1909 116 Figure 7 Chief Joseph 119 Figure 8 Peo Peo Thalekt wearing historical headdress 121 Figure 9 Map of the Nez Perce War, Scene of the Outbreak 122 Figure 10 Bear Paw Battlefield 126 Figure 11 Engravings of Eagle of the Light, Chief Joseph, and the Dreamer 131 Figure 12 Illustrations of various scenes from the Nez Perce War of 1877 141 Figure 13 Nez Perces Chief Joseph and Red Thunder pose with Edmond S. Meany 155 Figure 14 Chief Joseph posed on horseback 156 Figure 15 Chief Yellow Bull delivering speech at Chief Joseph Monument ceremony 157 Figure 16 Map of Pacific Northwest Indian Reservations, 1879 161 Figure 17 Map of Nez Perce Reservation, 1911 164 Figure 18 Parade Day, Toppenish Round-up 180 Figure 19 Drunken Indian Ride, Toppenish Round-up 181 Figure 20 Chief Joseph 188 vii Foreword By Clifford E. Trafzer Yellow Wolf, the famed warrior and war chief of the Nimipu, ended his ac- count of the Nez Perce War by saying, “the whites told only one side.” He believed that scholars told their story: “Told it to please themselves.” Yellow Wolf stated that historians had “Told much that is not true,” including the “best deeds” of whites and “only the worst deeds of the Indians.” The Nez Perce elder understood the power of the written word, and although illiter- ate, Yellow Wolf knew what white historians had said about the war and his people. He was not pleased with the past presentations of the Nez Perce, and he never forgot the injustices forced on his people by white Americans. Yel- low Wolf represented the views of many Nez Perce when he told rancher L.V. McWhorter that non-Indian scholars understood little about the Nimi- pu and their culture. In their writings, historians had justified the invasion of Nez Perce lands, and they had downplayed the role of the United States and its citizens in bringing a devastating war to his people who had befriend- ed white explorers, soldiers, and government agents only to have them turn against the Nimipu out of greed and racial hatred. Rob McCoy examines these topics and far more, weaving an original analysis about the ways in which academics appropriated the Nez Perce sto- ry to enhance their own regional and national identities. He demonstrates the way in which historians in the Northwest created a regional history that glorified Westward expansion, the settlement of the “wilderness,” and ex- ploitation of the rich natural resources. He maintains that Indians play a role in the “winning” of the West by being noble barriers to white expansion, barriers that had to be overcome by gallant pioneers, like the rivers and mountains. McCoy argues that no individual symbolized the so-called “In- dian barrier” better than Chief Joseph, the famous Nez Perce chief who he- roically fought the United States, but lost to a “superior” people who ix x Foreword promised to open the west and plant true culture, civilization, and progress. McCoy provides details about the development of the Anglo-American myth about the positive development of the west that helped frame the man- ifest destiny of the country into the Pacific and beyond. He informs us about the way the creation of a regional identity mirrored the national identity, fostered by the lectures and writings of leading scholars who produced his- tory in the early twentieth century, a history that influenced the way in which people around the world viewed and interpreted American history. McCoy links the Northwest with Frederick Jackson Turner, the mentor professor of Edmond Meany, the leading historian of Washington State, whose work still influences history education in the region. McCoy offers us windows from which we can view historical productions and images that continue to affect our lives today. He also takes us into the world of Nez Perce history as created by whites, not Indians, offering new ways of think- ing about the way “others” have constructed Native American history, rep- resenting Nez Perces without significant knowledge or in-depth interest in the Nimipu. McCoy uses part of the Nez Perce creation story recorded by Archie Phinney as a metaphor to deconstruct white presentations of Nez Perce history. He invites readers into the Native story to illustrate the sym- bolic way in which Monster (the United States and scholars) consumed Coy- ote (Nez Perce people), swallowing the trickster but not killing him. Monster believed that by eating Coyote, the wily hero would disappear. For a brief time, Monster eliminated Coyote. The hero did not die or surrender. From the outset, Coyote conceded that Monster would swallow him, so the hero prepared for the inevitable by hiding five knives in his fur. After Coyote found himself in the stomach of Monster, he began to destroy Monster from within. So Coyote used his five knives to cut at Monster’s body, an action that Monster realized immediately but could not prevent. Coyote cut Mon- ster until he reached the ogre’s heart, and the hero killed Monster, reemerg- ing into the daylight. Coyote used Monster’s body to create all the Indian peoples, tossing parts of the body in every direction and using Monster’s blood to create the strongest people on earth, the Nimipu. Like Coyote, Monster swallowed Nez Perces but could not kill them. The people survived disease, death, war, removal, reservations, and govern- ment policies bent on destroying Nez Perce language, culture, religion, and history. They used their experiences and Monster’s body of knowledge through the written and spoken work to revitalize themselves. The people turned the power against Northwestern scholars to construct their own his- tory with a deep understanding of Native American culture, religion, and oral narratives. The Nez Perce and their friends used community-based Foreword xi research and oral history to re-envision, reclaim, and reconstruct a new his- tory of the Nimipu, one that included the knowledge of the Nez Perce peo- ple themselves without the goal of regional or national building. Rob McCoy allows us to emerge from the belly of Monster so that we can see the academic world differently. He encourages us to reinterpret Nez Perce history with a new lens centered on the first historians who ignored the rich panorama of American Indian culture and the historical stories kept by families of Nez Perce people themselves. Clifford E. Trafzer is professor of History and American Indian Studies at the University of California, Riverside. His books include Death Stalks the Yakama, Chief Joseph’s Allies, The Native Universe, and As Long As the Grass Shall Grow and the Rivers Flow. Preface While writing this book in California, I often returned to my hometown in Oregon during the summer for brief vacations to clear my head and visit my family.