Old Chief Joseph's Grave

Here lies Old Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce leader who refused to sell the Wallowa Valley.

When the United States pressed a treaty in eighteen sixty-three that would have surrendered this homeland, he would not sign it. As he was dying around eighteen seventy, he told his son, the younger Chief Joseph, never to forget. This country, he said, holds your father's body. Never sell the bones of your father and mother.

The son tried to keep that promise, and his eleven-hundred-seventy-mile fighting retreat in eighteen seventy-seven became one of the most famous flights in American history. Old Joseph was first buried near the river forks. After his grave was robbed, he was reburied here in nineteen twenty-six, on ground that is now a sacred site within Nez Perce National Historical Park.