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.The business ofAmerica had become business, and anyone who represented any other typeof concern was given civil hearing, then politely shown the door.He also was fighting the tide of a reform movement that saw the  Indianproblem as an issue less of tribal sovereignty than of individual rights.TheIndians staunchest supporters both in government and society as a whole390Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Percesaw their primary task as bringing the Indian into the full status of Ameri-can citizenship. Let us forget once and forever the word  Indian and all that it has sig-nified in the past, said a participant at one of the Mohonk Conferencesthat were held annually in New York to help shape American policy towardthe Indian,  and remember only that we are dealing with so many childrenof a common father.Such an attitude fit perfectly with the less visionary attitude of morepractical politicians. Three hundred thousand people have no right tohold a continent and keep at bay a race able to people it and provide thehappy homes of civilization, they declared. We do owe the Indians sacredrights and obligations, but one of those duties is not the right to let themhold forever the land they did not occupy, and which they were not makingfruitful for themselves or others. At its best, the issue of Indian rights hadbecome an issue of human rights.Land claims, apart from individual prop-erty claims, were a thing of the past.So when Joseph went before officials in Washington complaining aboutthe treatment of the Nez Perce at Colville and pleading for the legal rightsof his people to their old lands, he was received as a curious anachronismand met with almost patronizing indifference.The public as well as gov-ernmental officials were more interested in seeing the noble chief in his re-galia than in dealing with him as an aggrieved plaintiff in a land disputewith the United States government.He was still lionized by the public, but in a very curious way.In 1897,after a fruitless visit to Washington, he was invited to New York to partici-pate in the great parade and celebration for the dedication of Grant s Tomb.On the day before the dedication, he was invited to Madison Square Gardento watch Buffalo Bill s Wild West show.Both General Howard and GeneralMiles were visiting the city for the dedication and also in attendance.Uponseeing Joseph, each came over to pay his respects.When Buffalo Bill,mounted on his horse and directing the festivities, realized the chief was inattendance, he too rode over and paid his regards.The assembled publicwas provided with a treat even greater than the Wild West show s recreationsof great Indian battles and feats of frontier marksmanship.There, in theirown great arena in downtown New York City, America s most celebratedIndian had encountered two of its most celebrated Indian fighters and its I Would Be Happy with Very Little 391most celebrated Indian scout, now turned showman and, by all appear-ances, had conversed civilly and congenially with each of them.When the New York Times reported the event the following day, they re-ferred to Joseph as the leader of his people s  romantic flight in 1877. Theman who only a decade earlier had been viewed as the embodiment ofAmerica s unjust treatment of indigenous people had become instead thesymbol of a bygone era and the embodiment of a romantic vision of Amer-ica s past.The next day this image was emblazoned for all time on thepublic s imagination as Joseph, in full tribal regalia, rode alongside BuffaloBill in the great parade honoring the deceased general and president.Joseph returned home to the Colville an even greater hero in the publicmind but no closer to achieving success in his quest to get his people backto the Wallowa.The American people, like the American government, werehappy to lionize him as a symbol of the nation s exotic frontier past, butthey had no interest in seeing him as a person with a legitimate legal dis-pute in the present.There were still voices on his side.Miles, who had been promoted toCommander General of the Army, continued to advocate for the chief.Hesometimes paid for Joseph s trips to Washington out of his own pocket,and he worked hard to make sure that the chief got fair hearing when hearrived.But he too was being swept up in the tides of change as the mili-tary was being forced to move from dealing with Indians and Mexicansand runaway slaves to offshore problems like the Spanish presence in theCaribbean.Howard made an occasional statement in support of Joseph,and Buffalo Bill Cody took up his cause [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]