I Will Tell of My War Story : A Pictorial Account of the Nez Perce War

by Thompson, Scott M.

• ISBN13: 9780295979434
• ISBN10: 0295979437
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr

Summary

Chief Joseph's exhausted words of surrender, "Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever", are the accepted end of the Nez Perce War of 1877, in which several bands of Nez Perce attempting to find a new home outside their diminished Idaho reservation clashed with the U.S. military (and occasionally other Indians) along the Clearwater and Big Hole Rivers, and finally at the foot of the Bear Paw Mountains. However, a number of Nez Perce escaped transportation to Indian Territory with Joseph and continued their flight to Canada, with perhaps a hundred eventually joining Sitting Bull's Lakota. I Will Tell of My War Story reproduces, describes, and discusses a remarkable series of drawings by an anonymous Indian artist who fought with Chief Joseph and later reached Canada. The drawings, in red, blue, and black pencil, include portraits of principal participants in the war, battle scenes, and views of Nez Perce camp life and celebrations during the war and after.

The drawings are preserved i

Author Biography

Scott M. Thompson in an art teacher at Chase Middle School in Spokane, Washington.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Charles Warner's Cash Book: Its History and Preservation	3	(8)
Nontreaty Life: An Overview of Traditional Nez Perce Culture	11	(6)
``They Had not Done Wrong To Be So Killed'': The Nez Perce War of 1877	17	(9)
Form, Organization, and Artistic Style of the Cash Book	26	(9)
``The Young Generation Behind Me, for them I Tell the Story'': The Cash Book Artist	35	(6)
A Presentation of Nez Perce Ethnology and History: The Cash Book Drawings	41	(72)
Bibliography	113	(6)
Sources for Epigraphs in Captions	119	(1)
Index	120