1975 Directed by Richard T. Heffron
Pursued by 2,000 US soldiers and cavalry, Chief Joseph leads his tribe of 800 Nez Perce on a 1,700 mile journey across the West and towards Canada. Based on the true story of the westward expansion of the United States and the military force used to displace Native Americans from their lands.
I am perhaps irrationally attached to the Indians' cause - back in grade school, I loved the Indians and hated the White Man. I gave myself an Indian name.
Read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," by Dee Brown.
One small chapter of that book deals with the subject of this movie, the Nez Perce flight through Idaho and Montana to escape inevitable extermination by the U.S. Army.
Chief Joseph made his famous remark at his inevitable surrender, as did Chief Logan, long before, in Ohio. I have been to see the Logan Elm in Ohio - it no longer exists:
"One day a party of Indians was camping at the mouth of Yellow Creek. Some white men were camping…
One of the few films I know of which portrays the fascinating General Oliver O. Howard, which alone makes this a movie to watch.
Directly calls into question the hypocrisy of a country which can claim it fights for the just and noble cause of emancipation against the Confederacy and then go on to return to fighting wars of subjugation and oppression against Native Americans. Its call at the end to truly and fully reckon with the crimes committed by the United States and built a just and equal society is not subtle, but it is at least an earned message with the back-and-forth debates on the topic between Howard and C.E.S. Wood (portrayed, interestingly, by a 30-year-old Sam Elliott) throughout the film.
"The Last of the Nez Perces"! Some forever; Ned Romero couldn't make it two years without playing Mohican, though Chief Joseph put up enough fight for any Native American who actually existed. By 1877, his Nez Perce tribe lived in relative stability long the Idaho-Oregon border until President Grant quickly overcorrecting that by opening the territories to white settlers. The usually well-behaved Joseph's stern refusal to relocate soon escalates into all-out war with the arrival of numerous soldiers who are unprepared for their enemy's respectable stand. As the cycle of bloody vengeance rages on, Joseph soon realizes that he has no choice but to bug out, to the usual place for state enemies this up in the United States. Between…
