"General Howard informed me, in a haughty spirit, that he would give my people 30 days to go back home, collect all their stock, and move onto the reservation"

Chief Joseph documents an encounter with General Howard that is charged with power dynamics and tension. General Howard’s manner is described as “haughty,” reflecting an attitude of superiority and arrogance toward Chief Joseph and his people. The use of the word “informed” as opposed to “asked” or “discussed” highlights the lack of dialogue or mutual understanding; it signifies a unilateral decision imposed upon the Nez Perce, not an agreement reached through negotiation. This moment captures the disregard for the agency and humanity of a Native American nation: their fate decided not in consultation, but by decree.

The deadline imposed, thirty days, underscores the urgency and pressure placed upon the Nez Perce. Such a time limit is not just a practical demand but a symbol of domination and control, as if a centuries-old way of life can be uprooted and relocated at the whim of a military officer. The phrase “go back home, collect all their stock, and move onto the reservation” suggests a simplicity, as though these actions are easy tasks, erasing the trauma, complexity, and loss inherent in such an order. “Home” for the Nez Perce is a vast territory filled with spiritual and cultural significance, not a simple place to return to and abandon at an authority’s command.

Howard’s command embodies the broader policy of forced removal and relocation that Indigenous peoples across the continent experienced, a policy enacted with little empathy or understanding for the profound consequences. Chief Joseph’s recounting does not only relay the content of the order but exposes the attitude behind it. The “haughty spirit” is emblematic of the larger colonial mindset that justified dispossession through assertions of power and cultural superiority. This moment marks not just a bureaucratic instruction but affirms the wider historical narrative of injustice, disrespect, and imposition upon the Nez Perce and many other Indigenous communities.