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 "Congratulations to Tor/Forge for their American Heroes series. I can't think of a publishing venture that America needs more than this. CHIEF JOSEPH by Candy Moulton is a perfect introduction to the series. It combines good history with deep emotion. It's a book that will live in every reader's mind."
Thomas Fleming, author of DREAMS OF GLORY
ISBN: 0765310635 Hardcover
Chief Joseph, 1840-1904, became a Nez Percé Indian diplomat in his quest to retain the homeland of his people in northeastern Oregon’s Wallowa Valley after an 1863 treaty called for his band’s removal to a reservation in Idaho. In 1877, when the frontier military took action to force them onto the reservation, he led 750 Nez Percés on a 1,500-mile, four-month flight from western Idaho across Montana and through Yellowstone National Park and northwest Wyoming toward safety in Canada. Along the way the U.S. Army attacked the Indians several times, in one battle at the Big Hole in western Montana, frontier soldiers killed nearly ninety Indian men, women and children. The flight ended at the Bears Paw in north-central Montana, just forty miles from the Canadian border and potential refuge. There the U.S. Army surrounded the Nez Percés, captured their horse herd, killed all but two of their primary chiefs, and forced capitulation. When Joseph surrendered to military leaders he told them, “Fromwhere the sun now stands I will fight no more.”
Promised by military commanders that they would return to Idaho, the Nez Percés were instead relocated to Indian Territory in Oklahoma where dozens more died of fevers and disease. There Chief Joseph began a new fight for better conditions for his people and the right to return to their home country. His diplomatic and eloquent speaking style won public support and gave him the right to return to the Pacific Northwest, where the Nez Percé people then had homes on reservations in Idaho and Washington. Chief Joseph died on September 21, 1904.
Praise for CHIEF JOSEPH:
GUARDIAN OF THE PEOPLE
"The story of Chief Joseph is reflective of the forebearance and determination of the Nez Perce people. Candy Moulton has crafted a moving account of a major player in an epic chapter of American Indian history."
Jerome A. Greene
author of NEZ PERCE SUMMER, 1877:
THE U.S. ARMY AND THE NEE-ME-POO
CRISIS
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"Our written history goes from the 700 page history by Alvin Josephy to other shorter works but none is more comprehensive than CHIEF JOSEPH: GUARDIAN OF THE PEOPLE for American Heroes. I appreciate Candy Moulton including details about our stay in and return from Oklahoma Territory."
Charlie Moses, Jr.
Chief Joseph Band, Nez Perce
Colville Reservation, Nespelem, Washington
Treasurer, Nez Perce National Historical Trail Foundation
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"Solid, well researched, beautifully balanced and written with smooth
authority, CHIEF JOSEPH: GUARDIAN OF THE PEOPLE is an excellent recounting of a tale of high tragedy that defines the native-American heartbreak that is at the center of the American westering experience. Every page offers a nugget to a discerning reader. It's a superb start on an important new series."
David Nevin
author of MERIWETHER
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"Moulton writes with exquisite passion about one of America's greatest freedom fighters. Impeccably researched, CHIEF JOSEPH: GUARDIAN OF THE PEOPLE, will stand for generations as a testament to one man's heroic struggle to find a sanctuary for his people."
W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Authors of PEOPLE OF THE RAVEN
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"This is popular history, meaning it is accessible to the general reader, not that it is not carefully researched or skillfully written. Popular history can be, and in CHIEF JOSEPH is, just as accurate as any scholarly work. Kudos to Candy Moulton for her writing; to Dale Walker for his editing; and to Forge for publishing such a much needed series as American Heroes."
D.L. Meredith
Roundup Magazine.
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