... I will fight no more forever
October 5 1877 the Nez Perce pursued by the US Army, freezing to death and starving as the were, surrendered...
"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute 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."
Chief Joseph - Thunder Traveling to the Loftier Mountain Heights - 1877
When I was younger I had a friend who was a great grand nephew of Chief Joseph. I learned a lot about the Nez Perce from him ... in fact he was willing to teach me their language... So why you ask me do I confide this to you? Why? Part as a memory shared, yes, but more so to share my thoughts and feelings about war ...
I believe Joseph did what was right for his people ... for what good would it have been to have made it to Canada if most of them were dead and dying ... his fight ended .. his people lived to fight a another day in another way ... their fight was and still is a fight for their survival as Nez Perce ... they are still here. ... and so are those who believe they have a right to take and use whatever and whomever they wish to achieve their goals ... greed for more ... money power control ... an evil to be fought even now ...
Joseph was a leader of his people ... those who pull the strings behind the scenes are not ...
I wrote this poem about the Iraq war and the stifling of opposition ...
a golden field with flowers of red
commemorate the lives of the dead
who shed their blood in wars long gone
how could they know they were but pawns
in games that were played by greedy old men
who real purpose was beyond their ken
and these old men took the best of us
without a care, without any fuss
they sent them off into the battle
to be slaughtered like barnyard cattle
they did not care twas not their mind
twas money and power that made them blind
and now again it’s off to war
far away from our home land shore
to bear the brunt of old men games
to feed the fire and the flames
how blind we be to shut our eyes
and play the games of old men lies
afraid to speak afraid to say
this is not right we will not play
but the noose it tightens every day
afraid to say
afraid to say
this is not right we will not play
but the noose it tightens every day ….
©owlspook, 081019
We still fight wars of conquest ... we couch it in terms of liberation ... we go to save a people from whatever oppression strangles them ... true or not we go marching off to war...
Please also listen to Pearl Jam singing Masters of War (after the obligatory advertisement of course) … not much has changed and that that has is for the worst …
©owlspook, 171230