The man who became a national celebrity with the name "Chief Joseph" was born in the Wallowa Valley in what is now northeastern Oregon in 1840.  He was given the name"Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt" or "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountains," but was widely known as Joseph, or Joseph the younger because his father had taken the Christian name Joseph when he was baptized at the Lapwai mission by Henry Spalding in 1838.

When his father died in 1871, Joseph was elected to succeed him.  He inherited not only a name but a situation made increasingly volatile as white settlers continued to arrive in the Wallowa Valley.  Joseph staunchly resisted all efforts to force his band onto the small Idaho reservation, and in 1873, a federal order to remove white settlers and let his people remain in the Wallowa Valley made it appear that he might be successful.  But the federal government soon reversed itself, and in 1877, General Oliver Otis Howard threatened a cavalry attack to force Joseph's band and other hold-outs onto the reservation.  Believing military resistance futile, Joseph reluctantly led his people toward Idaho.

Unfortunately, they never got there.  About twenty young Nez Perce warriors, enraged at the loss of their homeland, staged a raid on nearby settlements and killed several settlers.  Immediately, the army began to pursue Joseph's band and the others who had not moved onto the reservation.  Although he had opposed war, Joseph cast his lot with the war leaders.

What followed was one of the most brilliant military retreats in American history.  Even the unsympathetic General William Tecumseh Sherman could not help but be impressed with the 1,400 mile march.  He stated that, "The Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise...(they) fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications."  In over three months, the band of about 700 (fewer than 200 of whom were warriors) fought 2,000 US soldiers and Indian auxiliaries in four major battles and numerous skirmishes.

By the time he formally surrendered on October 5, 1877, Joseph was widely referred to in the American press as "the Red Napoleon."  It is unlikely, however, that he played as critical a role in the Nez Perce's military feat as his legend suggest.  He was never considered a war chief by his people, and even within the Wallowa band, it was Joseph's younger brother (Olikut) who led the warriors, while Joseph was responsible for guarding the camp.  It appears, in fact, that Joseph opposed the decision to flee into Montana and seek aid from the Crows and that other chief's were the true strategists of the campaign.  Nevertheless, Joseph's widely reprinted surrender speech has immortalized him as a military leader in American culture:

I am tired of fighting.  Our chief's are killed.  Looking Glass is dead.  Toohoolhoolzote is dead.  The old men are all dead.  It is the young men who say, "Yes" or "No."  He who led the young men (Olikut) is dead.  It is cold, and we have no blankets.  The little children are freezing to death.  My people, some of them have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food.  No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death.  I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find.  Maybe I shall find them among the dead.  Hear me, my chiefs!  I am tired.  My heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

Joseph's fame did him little good.  Although he had surrendered with the understanding that he would be allowed to return home, Joseph and his people were instead taken first to eastern Kansas and then to a reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) where many of them died of epidemic diseases.  It wasn't until 1885, that Joseph and the other refugees were returned to the Pacific Northwest.  Even then, half (including Joseph) were taken to a non-Nez Perce reservation in northern Washington, separated from the rest of their people in Idaho and their homeland in the Wallowa Valley.

In his last years, Joseph spoke eloquently against the injustice of United States policy toward his people and held out the hope that American's promise of freedom and equality might one day be fulfilled for Native Americans as well.  A strong voice of conscience for the West, he died in 1904, still in exile from his homeland.  His doctor said he died "of a broken heart."