Recalling his people's famous flight for freedom two years earlier, during which several family members and close associates were killed, Chief Joseph argued passionately for the U.S. government to live up to its promise to allow the Nez Perce to return in peace to their ancestral homelands. A celebrated example of Indian oratory, the speech became a rallying cry for efforts to reverse the tide of American expropriation of Indian lands.
"I have heard talk, and talk.... but nothing gets done. Good words do not last long, unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people... they do not pay for my country... they do not protect my father's grave. Good words do not give me back my children. Good words will not give my people good health, and stop them from dying. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words, and all the broken promises..."
Following his surrender, Chief Joseph spent the rest of his life arguing for the U.S. government to honor its promise to repatriate his people. During his celebrated 1879 speech, he argued for the same civil liberties granted every American citizen. But Chief Joseph, like the vast majority of Indian people, was to die in exile from his native land.
"If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live, and grow. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. Let me be a free man... free to travel... free to stop... free to work... free to choose my own teachers... free to follow the religion of my fathers... free to think, and talk, and act for myself..."