Capitalism 13

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace….Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even  hance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief.  They  are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it….Let me be a free man (…) and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.

Speech during a visit in Washington.

Hinmaton-Yalaktit (1840-1904), also known as Chief Joseph, was a Wal-lam-wat-kain, a Nez-Percé subgroup of the Wallowa River Valley in northeastern Oregon, USA. He became well known as an astute tactician during the Nez-Percé War.

Chief Joseph the Elder, Hinmaton-Yalaktit's father, had "secured" land for the Nez Percé on a reservation, which led to them settling. As a result of the gold rush of 1863, the majority of Nez Percé land was expropriated by the federal government. In response, Chief Joseph the Elder then burned the US flag and his Bible. After his death, Hinmaton-Yalaktit continued Nez Percé resistance. His concept of freedom also included the freedom to trade. But unlike de Vitoria, he presented the idea of equality as fundamental to trade. In the same speech, he denounced that "I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me." (www.pbs.org)

*Howards Zinn (1980): A People‘s History of the United States. 1492-present. New York: Harper Collins. *The Washington Speech.

1879