Birthday of hinmatóowyalahtq̓it (Chief Joseph) wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce

hinmatóowyalahtq̓it led his Wallowa band of Nez Perce during the most tumultuous period in their history, when they were forcibly removed by the United States federal government from their ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon onto a significantly reduced reservation in the Idaho Territory. A series of violent encounters with white settlers in the spring of 1877 culminated in those Nez Perce who resisted removal, including hinmatóowyalahtq̓it's band and an allied band of the Palouse tribe, fleeing the United States in an attempt to reach political asylum alongside the Lakota people, who had sought refuge in Canada under the leadership of Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull). At least 800 men, women, and children led by hinmatóowyalahtq̓it and other Nez Perce chiefs were pursued by the U.S. Army under General Oliver O. Howard in a 1,170-mile (1,900 km) fighting retreat known as the Nez Perce War.

We honor hinmatóowyalahtq̓it today for his passionate, principled resistance to his tribe's forced removal.