The Nez Perces
tesy the General supplied this clear account of the surrender:
"Dear Sir:
"Your inquiry of 1st received. When Chief Joseph was surrounded and held for five days with no possible chance of escape he asked under a flag of truce what would be done with him in case he surrendered. He was informed that so far as I knew it was the intention of the Government to send him back to the Idaho reservation and require him to stay there. I do not think there was any other purpose or design on the part of the authorities at that time, and I have always believed that that should have been done.
The sending of Joseph and the Nez Perces to the Indian Territory, where a large percentage of them died from malaria, was an after-consideration, and in my opinion a serious mistake. The location of his tribe, however, was not a condition of his surrender, for he surrendered, and was compelled to surrender, by force of arms.
But, in my opinion, the ends of justice would have been reached had he been returned at once to his reservation; and justice has been delayed by his being forced to remain in another part of the country.
"Yours truly,
"(Signed)Nelson A. Miles."
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