Tribe Battling to Block Housing Near Gravesite

In 1877, Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Perce Indians were forced to abandon their beloved Wallowa Valley in a trek that turned into a war with the U.S. Cavalry and ended with their surrender 1,500 miles away, near the Canadian border.

Delivering one of the most heartbreaking surrender speeches in history, Chief Joseph said: “I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.”

Joseph’s band was exiled to reservations in Oklahoma, Washington and Idaho.

More than a century later, the Nez Perce are again engaged in a fight -- this time a legal dispute over building 11 upscale homes on 62 acres on a grassy ridge near a Nez Perce cemetery that includes the grave of Chief Joseph’s father, Old Chief Joseph.

The grave is on a 5-acre site that serves as the trailhead for a National Historic Trail that follows the route taken by Joseph’s band of Nez Perce during their running battles with the Cavalry.

Because the subdivision is on a site closely tied to the tribe’s history, fighting the development is a top priority for the Nez Perce, said tribal secretary Jake Whiteplume.

“Remembering what our ancestors went through will help keep us going” in the legal fight, he said. “That was our homeland. We have that teaching in us today. We still remember.”

The Nez Perce and two other Northwest tribes have filed a legal challenge to the proposed housing development with the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners. The tribes argue the whole ridge is a site of cultural significance and a national historic treasure.

The commissioners are scheduled to decide the issue at a hearing on Monday.

Developers of the proposed project reject Nez Perce assertions that some of their ancestors may be buried beneath the site. The developers point out there is already a 7-acre buffer zone separating the privately held 62 acres and the cemetery.

The developers also say the construction project would bring much-needed jobs to this corner of eastern Oregon, hard-hit by the demise of the timber industry.

“This is a simple land-use issue, and to compare this site to the war in 1877, and the atrocities that took place, is not fair to the owners,” said Rahn Hostetter, an attorney for developer K & B Limited Family Partnership.

The land was appraised at $1.8 million if it can be subdivided; if not, it is worth about $1 million, Hostetter said.

The city of Joseph and Wallowa County are at odds over the housing development. In December, the county planning commission approved a tentative plan for the development. But the city has supported the tribes’ appeal, arguing that an archeological study contracted out by the developers is insufficient.

The subdivision and the Nez Perce cemetery are on a ridge overlooking Wallowa Lake, in the shadow of the snow-draped Wallowa Mountains. Nez Perce bands caught sockeye salmon in the 6-mile lake and hunted in the Wallowa Mountains. Young Chief Joseph was camped on the ridge in 1877 when his band of Nez Perce was expelled from the region.

The band had retained the Wallowa Valley as a reservation under an 1855 treaty signed by Old Chief Joseph but later renegotiated by the U.S. government and Nez Perce tribal leaders in Idaho without the consent of the Wallowa band of the tribe. The new treaty of 1863 ceded the entire valley to settlers.

On his deathbed in 1871, Old Chief Joseph reminded his son that he had not signed the revised treaty, according to Alvin M. Josephy’s 1965 history of the Nez Perce war and exile, “The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest.”

The old chief told his son, according to Josephy: “Never forget my dying words. This country holds your father’s body.”

But the band abandoned the valley when U.S. Gen. Oliver O. Howard threatened to attack. They fled through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, fighting Howard’s troops along the way. Chief Joseph surrendered at Bear Paw, Mont., 40 miles short of the Canadian border.

Over the last decade, retirees and tourists have been discovering the scenic Wallowa Valley. And the city of Joseph -- named after the young Chief Joseph -- has succeeded in reinventing itself as an artists’ colony and retirement destination.

As Joseph has flourished, new homes and housing developments have begun popping up in and outside the city.

The fight over the gravesite comes as the Nez Perce reassert their ties to the valley. For decades, they were not welcome: Around the turn of the century, local residents unsuccessfully petitioned Congress to prohibit Nez Perce Indians from living in the valley after some had returned to hunt and work in hay fields.

Today, only two Nez Perce live in the Wallowa Valley. One is Joe McCormack, a tall, strapping man sporting a black pony tail and cowboy boots.

McCormack moved to the valley six years ago to work in a native fish restoration effort and as president of the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center Inc.

One of his jobs is for the nonprofit center to buy land for the tribes’ use. He has already purchased 320 acres near an abandoned Indian campsite.

The tribes may bid for the proposed development, called Marr Ranch, to preserve the site if legal efforts to block the subdivision fail, McCormack said.

“There have been other developments that built over gravesites,” McCormack said. “I would rather not see it happen again here.”