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The long retreat of the Nez Perce CHIEF JOSEPH AND THE FLIGHT OF THE NEZ PERCE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY By Kent Nerburn HarperSanFrancisco, 418 pages, $24.95
The story of Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Perce has become part of our standard lore about the American Indian, up there with Custer's men at Little Big Horn and the tragic fate of Crazy Horse. Exiled from their homelands in the Pacific Northwest, on the run from the U.S. military and only 40 miles from the refuge of the Canadian border, the Nez Perce were surrounded in the year 1877. Escape was possible only if they abandoned their children, elderly and wounded. Refusing to do this, their leader, Joseph, handed his rifle over to the commanding officer and spoke a famous sentence: "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."
The author contends that this story is only half true,...