Hearing the thunder roll. (Letters to the Editor).
Kudos to William Norman Grigg for his article about Chief Joseph ("Protector of the Nez Perce," July 15th issue). When I was teaching college in Omak, Washington, a few years ago, I visited Chief Joseph's grave. It's on a hill outside Nespelem, Washington. It was windy and stormy that day, and I was the only one in the cemetery. Chief Joseph's grave was covered with streamers, cassette tapes, and notes from admirers.I was struck by the fact that many people, Native Americans and Whites, still revere the great chief and made the pilgrimage that I had made -- nearly a hundred years after his death -- to an obscure, very out-of-the-way place on the Colville reservation.
Native American students told me some of the stories that still circulate on the reservation about Chief Joseph. They said he never gave up hoping to go home to the Wallowa Mountains. I was told that because he was a warrior, every morning he got up and dressed in his warrior clothes. He hated reservation life until the day he died. Chronic boredom haunted his later years. Unable to hunt, unable to travel freely, they said -- as Grigg also noted -- he died of a broken heart.
I spent an hour or so lingering by his grave and wandering the cemetery. Many of Joseph's followers are buried around him. One headstone (typical of others) was inscribed proudly "Gray Wolf, Nez Perce Warrior." While I was there, ironically, a thunderstorm began moving through the mountains and I was reminded that that was Joseph's Indian name, "Thunder rolling in the mountains" -- a fact Grigg also mentioned.
Mr. Grigg has written one of the best pieces I've ever read on Joseph -- including a mention of Chief Joseph's and his father's encounter with Christianity, information most short articles don't include. Chief Joseph is a symbol of greatness, integrity, and freedom for all Americans regardless of ethnic origin. Thank you for a great story about a great man.
DEL RICHARDSON
Coquille, Oregon
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| Publication: | The New American |
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| Date: | Aug 12, 2002 |
| Words: | 331 |
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