I Will Fight No More Forever

Historically a seminomadic confederation of people, the Nimíipuu had ancestral lands that covered parts of what is now Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Landmarks within this region indicate the boundaries and sacred sites that are preserved in oral traditions. Though each oral tradition has its tropes and draws from its distinct worldviews, oral traditions tend to share rhetorical devices such as repetition, repeated motifs, audience interaction, idioms, and rhyme and meter to serve as mnemonic devices and ensure faithful reproduction. Chief Joseph’s speech, as a work of oratory from an oral tradition, contains some of these rhetorical tropes, though translation likely obscures some devices and meanings. In oral traditions, religious practices, history, stories, and laws are passed from generation to generation by speakers. Rather than leaving a historical record in print, oral cultures require people and language to survive. Nimíipuu stories and the language are recognized today as part of a living history that predates the arrival of Europeans. Today the Nimíipuu maintain a sovereign nation of more than 3,000 members in central Idaho. The current seat of tribal government is in the city of Lapwai.