Chief Joseph
(Nez Percé/Nimiipuu leader, c. 1840-1904)
“I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts more.”
- Chief Joseph’s Own Story, by Chief Joseph, originally published in 1879; republished with an introduction by Bishop W. H. Hare and General Howard’s Comment in The North American Review (1879). Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2010.
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce was a good moral leader. He just failed to realize that white men knew no such morals. Their god afforded them a life of unlimited avarice and deceit and an afterlife in heaven if only they repent before death. Chief Joseph believed men were jus=died by the life they led not some magical I believe before death.