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"My Country
The Nez Perce Nation played a prominent role in the exploration of the Northwest by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. On September 9, 1805, Lewis and Clark camped at LoLo Creek to rest before making an assault on the LoLo Pass. The 100 or so mile trek across the rugged LoLo pass was nearly fatal to the party. They were caught in an early winter blizzard, nearly froze to death, several members became very ill, and some suffered from severe dysentery. They all suffered from exhaustion and near starvation and were forced to eat their horses. On the evening of September 22, Captain Lewis arrived at Weippe Prairie to join Captain Clark, who had exited the mountains several days earlier in search of food. Chief Twisted Hair and his band spared their lives, nurtured them back to health, and helped them build dugout canoes to complete their voyage to the mouth of the Columbia
The hospitality shown the white guests would ultimately be betrayed by the White Man's greed and deceit. In the mid-1800s, the vast mineral, timber and agricultural wealth of the ancestral homeland of the Nez Perce Nation was under "siege" by miners, settlers and even the goverment. The treaty of 1855 set aside much of this homeland as a reserve for the Nez Perce Nation. By 1863, the government was either unwilling or unable to control the onslaught onto Indian Lands, and so it attempted to negotiate a second treaty dramatically reducing the size of the reservation. Chief Joseph's father refused to sign this treaty; and his sons, Chief Joseph and Chief Ollokot, strove to preserve and protect that which was rightfully theirs. A formidable political struggle ensued, pitting Joseph against the intellect and might of the US government and its representatives. He aruged passionately and convincingly for the rights of his people--pitting his intellect against cabinet members, settlers, generals and even presidents. In the end, the government sought to forcefully remove Joseph and his people from their ancestral lands onto the reservation along with other Non-Treaty Chiefs, who also refused to sign the treaty of 1863.
Gneral Otis O. Howard would be charged with carrying out the policy of relocating the Non-Treaty Nez Perce onto the reduced reservation. An epic military struggle eventually erupted. Joseph, along with other Chiefs, who assumed a more prominent military role than Joseph, would fight gallantly for their beliefs, principles, and their homeland.
"My Country" is a moving expression of this titanic struggle, Bob Bolin, a Montana artist, was commissioned by Western Treasures to depict the essence of this struggle. Bob's other works include maps for "Custer's Last Campaign" by John S. Gray, book cover for "Hunting in the Great West," reprinted by John Willard, and illustrations and maps for "Custer's Seventh Cavalry Comes to Dakota" by Roger Darling.
