Bom in Oregon in 1840, Chief Joseph belonged to a Nez Perce band-the white man's name for an Indian tribe that preferred to call itself Numipu (meaning "We People"). Joseph grew up in their home territory of the Northwest, becoming a chief when his father passed away in 1871. By then the tribe had split into two factions, its bands differing over their willingness to engage in treaty-making with the whites. Chief Joseph rose to leadership of the renegade bands, who traveled 1,500 miles to escape the dictates of the whites and nearly succeeded. Defeated on the last leg of flight, Joseph issued a surrender statement that conveyed his people's resignation and despair.
Territory. The traditional territory of the Nez Perce fell between the forty-fifth and forty-seventh latitude parallels on the North and South, the Bitterroot Mountains to the east, and the Blue Mountains to the west. This area is the region where present-day Washington, Oregon, and Idaho meet. In 1805, when the white explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark met the Nez Perce, the tribe had about six thousand members who lived in 130 villages, each housing from ten to seventy-five villagers.
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