He had lived through the gold rush, the 1863 treaty dispute, and the steady expansion of settler presence into the country his people had always occupied.

He was not a man who sought war.

Contemporary accounts describe him as initially opposed to conflict and committed to finding a peaceful resolution to the crisis of 1877.

But he was also a man who had spent a long life watching what American promises meant in practice, and he had reached conclusions about the reliability of those promises that would shape his decision at Bear Paw.

The leader of the Wallowa band, and the figure who would become most famous in American popular memory, was Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, known to Americans as Joseph or Young Joseph.