The Indian Dispossessed
please, with its ear to the ground, listening to the divided clamor of the people, met this divided sentiment most curiously by dividing the Indians, restoring less than half to the Nez Perce reservation, while the others, including Joseph and his more immediate following, were sent to an Indian reservation in northeastern Washington to continue their exile.
All history acquits Joseph and his band in the Wallowa Valley of the murders which decided the "non-treaty" Indians for war. Nevertheless, Joseph had led the combined forces in their hopeless struggle; and afterward it was Joseph's voice that was raised in continual protest against the extinction of his people. So, in the selection of a scapegoat to offer up to the good people of Idaho, the lot naturally fell to Joseph. It was the irony of fate that he who had mainly accomplished the restoration of his people was not to participate in it. And again, the irony of fate that fifteen of White Bird's band—the band concerned in the murders—should at this same time have been received back from their retreat in British territory and given good land in the home reservation of the Nez Perces.
The restoration of the favored portion to their own tribe is reported by the Nez Perce agent:
"One hundred and eighteen Nez Perces of Joseph's band reached this agency June 1, 1885, were kindly received, and have gone out among the tribe. After
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