Sharing my latest video: I Wanna Go Home

[Generic Other]

A Larkworthy Antfarm production. Music: David Rovics' "I Wanna Go Home." Photographs from Northwest Coast Native Collection, University of Washington Library.

In 1876, Chief Joseph leader of the Nez Perce tribe resisted US government efforts to remove his people from their ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley (Oregon). Promising never to "sell the bones" of his ancestors, Joseph refused to surrender. He led a band 800 Nez Perce 1,170 miles hoping to find asylum in Canada. Pursued by the US Army, Joseph fought and outmaneuvered the troops for three months before being forced to surrender after a five day battle within sight of the Canadian border.

His speech on surrendering: I am tired of fighting...It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

The government forced his people to relocate to Indian Territory in Oklahoma where Joseph worked tirelessly to find a way to return home once again. In 1885, the government allowed the Nez Perce to return to the Pacific Northwest, but they were exiled from their land being relocated to the Colville reservation. Chief Joseph was said to have died of a broken heart.

[lumpy]

1. Excellent. Thanks for post.

[Generic Other]

2. Thanks for watching

I appreciate the feedback.

[RebelOne]

3. Great video. I have always been a steadfast supporter

for our Native Americans. In fact, I have a large poster of Chief Joseph on my living room wall along with a lot of other Native American artwork.

[Generic Other]

6. As I searched the archives of photos at the UW library

I was struck by how progressively defeated he looked. They wore him down. A lesson for us all.

I honor the tribes who fought the brave fight. They were among the first victims of our imperial designs. Ironically, it seems as if we are all victims today of a monolithic corporate state run amok. I think I understand in my bones the sense of loss and unshakeable feeling of impending doom Joseph and his people must have felt.

I have been feeling this way about the world as we know it for some time now. It's ironic that the very things we inflicted on Joseph's people, we seem willing to inflict on ourselves to some degree. Look at the treatment of the homeless, the unemployed, or the undereducated, etc. Kicking the homeless out of communities, foreclosing on homes, closing businesses...we are slowly dying. Main Street is a vacant lot. Chief Joseph knew the heartache of seeing his way of life destroyed. I think we are seeing it happen to ours as well.

Does that even make sense?

[monmouth3]

4. Wonderful, thank you for posting...n/t

[Generic Other]

5. This was for all the refugees

including us. In many ways, we have lost our way home too. Thanks for the kind words. I am working on creating more of these videos, so I need encouragement and feedback.