Buffalo Country: this is our American history

Ken Burns helped me imagine what this would have looked like before the slaughter of the buffalo by the tens of millions in the nineteenth century by the white settlers and the US Army:

He described it as the American Serengeti, filled with grizzly bears, cougars, elk, moose and bison. Burns described it as a Garden of Eden, where the Indigenous peoples of North America lived in harmony with nature for 600 generations. 

Think about that. Six hundred generations. The United States has existed for seven to 12 generations.

The weather turned extremely surly in the Rocky Mountains above Waterton, Alberta, late Tuesday night, and spoiled our plans to ride horses up into them yesterday. So, we set off for the US border, and headed out across Montana.

A small sign was waiting to remind me of where I was, and what was around me: 

The sign marked the Bear Paw Battlefield where Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce made their last stand 40 miles from the safety of Canada in 1877.  It remains one of the most extraordinary military campaigns in American history. It came to an end in the shadow of the Bear Paw Mountain that witnessed the saddest speech in American history by an extraordinary leader and philosopher, Chief Joseph. What a tragedy it is that more Americans know who Marjorie Taylor Greene is than this great man. Here is Chief Joseph’s surrender speech:

I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. 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.

Chief Joseph did not stop fighting for his people. He had become deeply admired and respected across the country for his defiance, ferocity, courage, honesty, integrity and commitment. He came to Washington, DC, in 1879, and spoke there. His speech is remarkable to read. This is what he said:

I am glad I came [to Washington D.C.]. I have shaken hands with a good many friends, but there are some things I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I cannot understand how the Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did General Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government has something wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs are allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many different things. I have seen the Great Father Chief [President Hayes]; the Next Great Chief [Secretary of the Interior]; the Commissioner Chief [Commissioner of Indian Affairs]; the Law Chief [General Butler]; and many other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they all say they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while all their mouths talk right I do not understand why nothing is done for my people. I have heard talk and talk but nothing is 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 now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father’s grave. They do not pay for my horses and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief, General Miles. Good words will not give my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. 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. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. Too many misinterpretations have been made; too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and the Indians. 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 the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.

…

When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals.

I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with the white men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also.

Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike — brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers’ hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.

In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat has spoken for his people. 

This is our American history. It should be known because we aren’t trying enough to face it and learn from it. Also, the story between the US government and the Indigenous nations is not complete. Far from it. Ken Burns and I talked about this. What has been done cannot be undone, but what can be made better should be. Soon America will be 250 years old. It is well past time to remember what we have forgotten. There is much to learn from men like Chief Joseph. 

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And…greetings from North Dakota, the last and final state I needed to visit!

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If you didn’t get a chance to read my reaction to a recent NBC News story about concerns within the Biden campaign about Governor Gavin Newsom debating Ron DeSantis, check out my video commentary below.

If you would prefer to read the transcript, you can do so here.