Chief Joseph Land Quotations

For a short time we lived quietly. But this could not last. White men had found gold in the mountains around the land of winding water.

Governor Isaac Stevens of the Washington Territory said there were a great many white people in our country, and many more would come; that he wanted the land marked out so that the Indians and the white man could be separated.

The earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the neasure of our bodies are the same

The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all will smile upon this land... and this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.

The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it... Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land. I never said the land was mine to do with it as I chose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who created it. I claim a right to live on my land and accord you the privilege to live on yours.