Next there came a white officer (Governor Stevens), who invited all the Nez Perces to a treaty council. . . . He said there were a great many white people in the country, and many more would come; that he wanted the land marked out so that the Indians and white men could be separated. If they were to live in peace it was necessary, he said, that the Indians should have a country set apart for them, and in that country they must stay. My father, who represented his band, refused to have anything to do with the council, because he wished to be a free man. He claimed that no man owned any part of the earth, and a man could not sell what he did not own.
. . . Governor Stevens urged my father to sign his treaty, but he refused. "I will not sign your paper," he said . . . . "I have no other home than this. I will not give it up to any man. My people would have no home. Take away your paper. I will not touch it with my hand."
–"An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs,"
Chief Joseph, 1879
Why did Chief Joseph’s father refuse to sign a treaty with Governor Stevens?
He feared that the Nez Perce people would be forced into slavery.
He preferred to honor an earlier treaty that was already in place.
He did not want to give up the traditional territory of the Nez Perce people.
He was planning to wage war with the US government to end white settlement.
Answer: He did not want to give up the traditional territory of the Nez Perce people.
