Chief Joseph's Speech

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In the 1800’s, the undeniable phenomena of territorial and cultural expansion were the main reasons of change in the United States, and a clear proof of the impact that Native American tribes had is the speech by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Indians given in 1879 in Washington, D.C. This recognized speech describes the actions taken by the government, not only against the Nez Perce in particular, but all the Native American tribes.
Chief Joseph talks about how he’s tired of empty promises of peace and false hope, of violence against his people, and how they are pushed away from their land. The tribe, as well as many others, didn’t have many rights in the eyes of the law. This lead them to change their lifestyle to one more Americanized, …show more content…
It is evident, by the way the Chief speaks, what the role of the Native Americans was. His bias —constituted by factors such as ethnicity, age, gender, religion, etc.—is what makes the words even more valuable, because he’s certainly experiencing the consequences at first hand. Biases influence our way of seeing things, because they are what conforms the subjectivity on an opinion. In spite of that, Chief Joseph’s bias is what gives power to the speech, and makes us sympathize with him and his cause. Structurally speaking, there is no information missing from the document at first sight, except for the audience that Chief Joseph was aiming for. However, with further investigation, it is clear that this speech was the response to white government depriving them from their territory, therefore was a heart-breaking sign of surrender.
Nonetheless, the transcript of the speech as a source relates to the class because we infer that are the elements of the bias are the ones that make Chief Joseph’s words so exceptional, getting a sense of the reach that the governors in power at that time had to the point of creating policies and laws against the minorities, driven fortuitously by their own biases. Moreover, it is linked to how events such as the Washington speech has been deciphered throughout History, figuring whether is a primary, secondary or tertiary
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