Joseph Oregon is a beautiful city located in Wallowa county next to Wallowa Lake. The city is named after Chief Joseph. Chief Joseph was born around 1840 in what is now Wallowa county . His given name was Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, meaning "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain." However, everyone knew him as Joseph, or Joseph the Younger, because his father had taken the name Joseph when he was baptized at the Lapwai mission by Henry Spalding in 1838. Under Joseph the Elder's leadership, the powerful Nez Percé tribe was friendly to whites and Joseph the Younger was educated at a mission school. In 1855 Chief Joseph's father, Old Joseph, signed a treaty with the U.S. that allowed his people to retain much of their traditional lands. In 1863 another treaty was created that severely reduced the amount of land, but Old Joseph maintained that this second treaty was never agreed to by his people.
After months of fighting and marches througout the area, the Nez Perce were sent to a reservation in Oklahoma, where many died from disease.
Chief Joseph tried every possible appeal to the federal authorities to return the Nez Perce to the land of their ancestors. In 1885, he was sent along with many of his band to a reservation in Washington where, according to the reservation doctor, he later died of a broken heart. Chief Joseph, was kept captive, never being allowed to return to his Nez Pearce Homeland even though General Miles promised he could live in Idaho. Chief Joseph is buried on the Colville Reservation in Washington and today I visited his grave to do ceremony. (information brought to you by Indians.org)
