Quote

I did not want my people killed. I did not want bloodshed.

Chief Joseph

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Chief Joseph
Age: 64 †
Born: 1840
Born: March 3
Died: 1904
Died: September 21
Tribal Chief
Wallowa Valley
Joseph Buruzagia
Hin-mut-too-uah-lat-kekht
Thunder Rolling in the Mountains
Heinmot Tooyalaket
Joseph the Younger
Bloodshed
Killed
People

More quotes by Chief Joseph

Image
It does not require many words to speak the truth.
Chief Joseph
Image
It takes few words to tell the truth.
Chief Joseph
Image
Look twice at a two-faced man.
Chief Joseph
Image
The earth is our mother. She should not be disturbed by hoe or plough. We want only to subsist on what she freely gives us.
Chief Joseph
Image
Our fathers gave us many laws which they had learned from their fathers. These laws were good.
Chief Joseph
Image
Cursed be he that scalps the reputation of the dead.
Chief Joseph
Image
We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.
Chief Joseph
Image
We were like deer. They were like grizzly bear.
Chief Joseph
Image
My father... had sharper eyes than the rest of our people.
Chief Joseph
Image
I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in a country where my people will not die so fast.
Chief Joseph
Image
I saw clearly that war was upon us when I learned that my young men had been secretly buying ammunition.
Chief Joseph
Image
The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.
Chief Joseph
Image
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.
Chief Joseph
Image
I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do.
Chief Joseph
Image
I hope that no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.
Chief Joseph
Image
When the last deer disappears into the morning mist, When the last elk vanishes from the hills, When the last buffalo falls on the plains, I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom.
Chief Joseph
Image
Good words will not give me back my children.
Chief Joseph
Image
I am tired of talk that comes to nothing It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. It does not require many words to speak the truth.
Chief Joseph
Image
The first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clark.
Chief Joseph
Image
Big name often stands on small legs.
Chief Joseph