Chief Joseph Rides to Surrender by Howard Terpning.

 

The agony of defeat is powerfully rendered in this painting of the great Nez Perce' chief Joseph, on his way to surrender to army troops in the foothills of the Bear Paw Mountains only about thirty miles short of the Canadian border. Joseph had made a gallant effort to lead his people away from what they regarded as imprisonment on an Idaho reservation.

 

Weary, beaten, he delivered his heartbreaking "From where the Sun now stands" surrender speech. His stately bearing and powers of persuasion finally won him much respect among the whites and improved their treatment of Nez Perce' prisoners. Many eventually were allowed to return to their home in the northwest.

(Art of Howard Terpning - Elmer Kelton)

 

Print released 1982