5 October 1877 · Bear Paw Mountains, Montana
Chief Joseph: I Will Fight No More Forever
The setting
After a fighting retreat of some 1,900 kilometres, the Nez Perce, trying to reach refuge in Canada, were surrounded by the United States Army just short of the border. Their leader Joseph surrendered.
Key passage
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.
As reported by Lieutenant Charles Erskine Scott Wood, who may have shaped the wording.
The full speech
"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. 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."
Text: Wikisource, as taken down on the spot by Howard's officers, quoted in Seth K. Humphrey, The Indian Dispossessed (1905). The text is in the public domain; the Wikisource transcription is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
What followed
Despite promises that they could return home, the Nez Perce were exiled to Indian Territory, where many died. Joseph spent the rest of his life petitioning for his people's return to their homeland, and died on a reservation in 1904.