Landmark: Wallowa Lake, Part One

It's too early to say exactly when or how my longride on the Nez Perce Trail will begin. I can, however, tell you exactly where: at the grave site of Chief Joseph's father, Tuekakas.

More commonly known as Joseph, the name he adopted upon his conversion to Christianity, Tuekakas is interred near the shore of Wallowa Lake in northeastern Oregon. Although this is not his original grave site -- his remains were moved after his original grave was robbed a second time -- it seems an appropriate place for him to rest, for it is part of the Wallowa Nez Perce's homeland that he refused to sign away.

Though he had signed the Treaty of 1855, Tuekakas' band became part of the non-treaty Nez Perce when he refused to sign the Treaty of 1863. On his deathbed, he said to Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt:

"Always remember that your father never sold his country. You must stop your ears whenever you are asked to sign a treaty selling your home. A few years more, and white men will be all around you. They have their eyes on this land. My son, never forget my dying words. This country holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and your mother."

Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt -- who was, of course, the younger Chief Joseph -- promised to protect the grave with his life. Just over six years later, in October 1877, he broke that promise to save not himself, but those survivors of his embattled people who lay half-starved and frozen on the battleground at Bear's Paw.

Ah, it has happened again. I set out to write about a place, and I have written of people instead . I wonder if it is possible to do otherwise, and still do justice to the place. After all, it often seems that what makes a place is its people...and what makes a People is their place. If it were not so, the Nez Perce War of 1877 would never have been waged. There would be no Nez Perce Trail.

Let us call this Wallowa Lake, Part One, then. I shall try again soon to tell you more about the place our journey will begin.

___________________________________________

Related Posts

Landmark: Wallowa Lake, Part Two