In response to the need for Americans to continue to expand west, President Grover Cleveland signed The Dawes Act into law. The Dawes Act provided Native Americans free land and citizenship in exchange for their land that the white settlers would take over and own. Some of the Indian tribes agreed to go for the offer and gave up their tribal lands in exchange for land and citizenship, however some of the tribes refused to give up their land. The Nez Perce was a tribe in which members disagreed about what was best for the tribe.
In his first speech to the Nez Perce council, Chief Joseph addresses the growing friction between the Nez Perce due to the invasion and trickery of the white people. Chief Joseph opens with a reflection on the encounters and events with white people. his first encounter with white settlers was with Lewis and Clark. Lewis and …show more content…
They even brought gifts to make peace with the Indian tribe. After his encounter with them, Chief Joseph said that he believed that the whites and Indians could live in peace with each other. He then goes on to describe another encounter with another group of whites who were not as generous and friendly. These whites, who claimed to be friends with the Indians, offered blankets and goods to persuade the Indians to sign treaties and giving the whites their land. Chief Joseph recalls witnessing the white people taking over their native land by building houses and farms without permission. The whites then became greedy and stole crops from the Indian people. Even though the whites had tried to take all the land, Chief Joseph’s father refused to go into reservation