Hero Status for Chief Joseph :: American History Essays

Hero Status for pass JosephA modest and humble monument was raised to this giant Indian. A seven and a half foot white marble beam of light sets atop a barren hill where a lone, half d.o.a. elm tree stands, 14 miles north of the Grand Coulee Dam, in a small Indian Village on the Colville Indian Reservation. The acre or so of ground is delineated by wire fence. Weeds take hold transcend mounds where unplayfuls are left unidentified and only apparent by small mounds of rock. The elm stands, gnarled, over his sculpture. White chipped rock fill a rectangle edged with one by four wood planking, smaller in length than this man stood in all of this grown years. To his honor had been primed(p) a coin purse, cigarettes, a dog tag, dried flowers in stonemason jars, an arrowhead, keys, notes under rocks, a dream catcher hanging on the tree, where I placed a Nez Perce bead necklace. My heart was sad by the forlornness of this mans grave. My heart was sadder, knowing that his last days we re spent begging throng McLaughlin, Indian Inspector, to let him to return to his beloved home in the Wallowa Valley. For Joseph it was a kind of pilgrimage to his ancestral home. When he gazed once more upon the grave of his father...the tears brimmed over in the old chiefs eyes. McLaughlin issued an obstinate report to the government, never allowing the chief and his people to return to Oregon. Joseph, silent and incubation for weeks sat stoically for entire days at a metre without moving or speaking. Sitting before his fire on family line 21, 1904, he fell forward on his face. He died of a mortified heart.This Indian colossus, this gentle Napoleon-Gandhi that led his people in a exercise that will likely be handed down as a legend, accomplished miracles and mysteries that make him misunderstood by the white people and the Nez Perce. tomcat and I arrived in Nespelem at about 415 in the afternoon after a near four hour drive. 185 miles from capital of the Russian Federation a nd 100 miles northeast of Spokane. No signs. No historic landmarks. You just have to know that if you are looking for the grave of The Red Napoleon you mustiness stop and ask at the gas station. Professor Swagerty, history professor at the University of Idaho, had given these directions when he responded to my email about location of the grave site.