Chief Joseph Journal Entry #1

Chief Joseph only wanted to protect his people. He was not looking to cause a problem - but he didn't want to leave his ancestor's land, either. Joseph was a peaceful man, but because of a misunderstanding, American troops were ordered, "... an attack, which the Native Americans repulsed" (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 11/1/2011). This attack led to the Nez Perce tribe running for their lives from US soldiers. Their goal was to reach Canada, because by then Americans would not pursue them, but from the fatigue of the journey they were overtaken and forced to surrender. From reading this article, I've found that Americans make a lot of misinterpreted assumptions that lead to illogical mistakes. Joseph would have moved his tribe respectfully (maybe resentfully) to another location but the US government thought they were refusing and attacked them, causing an unnecessarily harmful result. The superfluous actions made my American soldiers resulted in such a tragedy that could have been avoided if the Nez Perce tribe had been listened to.