Chief Joseph: A Biography explores the world of the Nez Perce Indians from their entrance into the Columbia Plateau through their relations with the expanding United States. It recounts their attempt to accommodate the rapidly changing world around them, and it follows the life of Chief Joseph, one of their greatest peace leaders.
Readers will learn how interactions with Lewis and Clark at the beginning of the 19th century and the subsequent duplicity of white settlers and their government radically changed the Nez Perce way of life—and influenced Joseph's rise. Separating the real Chief Joseph from the myths that have grown around him, the book shows how he shepherded the Nez Perce people through the ordeals that confronted them, including the loss of their land and freedom and the persistent threats to the culture that had guided the Nez Perce for centuries.