voice in the matter: they had only to obey. Although some of the
lesser chiefs counseled revolt then and there, Joseph maintained
his self-control, seeking to calm his people, and still groping for
a peaceful settlement of their difficulties. He finally asked for
thirty days' time in which to find and dispose of their stock, and
this was granted.

Joseph steadfastly held his immediate followers to their
promise, but the land-grabbers were impatient, and did everything
in their power to bring about an immediate crisis so as to hasten
the eviction of the Indians. Depredations were committed, and
finally the Indians, or some of them, retaliated, which was just
what their enemies had been looking for. There might be a score of
white men murdered among themselves on the frontier and no outsider
would ever hear about it, but if one were injured by an Indian --
"Down with the bloodthirsty savages!" was the cry.

Joseph told me himself that during all of those thirty days a
tremendous pressure was brought upon him by his own people to
resist the government order. "The worst of it was," said he, "that
everything they said was true; besides" -- he paused for a moment
-- "it seemed very soon for me to forget my father's dying words,
'Do not give up our home!'" Knowing as I do just what this would
mean to an Indian, I felt for him deeply.

Among the opposition leaders were Too-hul-hul-sote, White
Bird, and Looking Glass, all of them strong men and respected by
the Indians; while on the other side were men built up by
emissaries of the government for their own purposes and advertised
as "great friendly chiefs." As a rule such men are unworthy, and