The Indian Dispossessed
could arrange it so we could live in our own country. I know my young men are wild, and it is better to keep them separated. It is better for all to live as we are. That is all I have to say."
The agent was impressed: "I have heard Joseph talk," he responded, "and my heart is glad. His talk is that of a wise man." Joseph prevailed, and the different tribes maintained their separate existence, each in its native valley, but still within the limits of the reservation; in the words of the Honorable Commissioner of Indian Affairs, "Chief Lawyer occupying the Kamiah Valley, Big Thunder the Lapwai, Timothy the Alpowai, Joseph the Wallowa, and Billy the Salmon River Valley."
In his report of this council with the Nez Perces, the agent says:
"This tribe, who have been the friends of the whites since the visit of Lewis and Clark to the country, having protected and saved the lives of Governor Stevens and his party, in 1855; organized a party who served with Colonel Wright during his campaign against the hostiles last year; and during every exigency where the whites have needed friends, they have been their firm allies, and [are] entitled to great consideration on the part of Government."
But subsequent happenings give this paragraph a peculiar interest:
"I found there had been great dissatisfaction, not in regard to the treaty, but from the circula-
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