14 ChaPter^1
way through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, but freez-
ing weather and starvation began to take their toll on the Indians. In early
October, in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana, just 40 miles from refuge
in Canada, the army attacked and overwhelmed the Nez Percé, and Chief
Joseph surrendered, famously stating “I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are
killed.... The old men are all dead.... It is cold, and we have no blankets;
the little children are freezing to death. My people... 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.... 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.”
With episodes like this, the period was often referred to as the time of the
“Indian Wars,” but that was a poor description. Wars involve some sense of
equal combatants, fighting with similar weapons. These were massacres, with
the government using its overwhelming power to exterminate entire groups
or tribes of Natives.FIGuRE 1-3 Chief Joseph, Nez Percé chief