REVIEWS : : Soldier to Advocate
The Oregonian
C.E.S. Wood and Chief Joseph: an eloquent empathy
Sunday, December 10, 2006
JEFF BAKER
C.E.S. Wood and Chief Joseph: an eloquent empathy
Sunday, December 10, 2006
JEFF BAKER
When Chief Joseph surrendered to the U.S. Army on Oct. 5, 1877, a young lieutenant named Charles Erskine Scott Wood observed the Nez Perce warrior with fascination and admiration. A talented artist, Wood made a pencil sketch of Joseph and interviewed him, using a translator.
What Joseph actually said that day is a matter of great debate. The conclusion of Joseph's "surrender speech" -- "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever'"-- is arguably the most famous phrase ever attributed to a Native American. It’s also highly unlikely Joseph said anything like it. Among Wood’s other talents was writing poetry, and it's more accurate to consider the surrender speech the way George Venn does, as a "disguised heroic sonnet" written by Wood, rather than as a verbatim transcription of Joseph's words.
In his book Soldier to Advocate: C.E.S. Wood’s 1877 Legacy, Venn makes the nuanced argument that the military campaign against the Nez Perce was a transformative event in Wood’s life and that at the surrender he was acting in dual roles: as an advocate for Gen. 0.0. Howard, a mentor and father figure who promoted him to aide-de-camp but whose conservative Christianity and high-handed treatment of the Indians differed from Wood’s views; and as advocate for the Nez Perce, a people Wood admired for their dignity, courage and individuality.
Venn believes the first sentence of the surrender speech- - "Tell General Howard I know his heart"-- represents Wood serving as Howard's advocate and the remaining 16 sentences are a synthesis of Nez Perce facts, translations "and his own observations and fictions." Joseph and Wood began a friendship that day that lasted the rest of their lives, but Joseph, an articulate man, never confirmed the surrender speech as his own words. Neither did anyone else who was there that day.
Wood spent the next 40 years revising and refining the surrender speech, which he first leaked to a North Dakota newspaper with the help of a Portland journalist and then published anonymously in Eastern newspapers and magazines. The effect, especially when combined with Wood's accurate, evocative drawings, was to bolster Howard's reputation while creating a positive image of the Nez Perce.
Venn, professor emeritus of English at Eastern Oregon University and an award-winning poet, believes the surrender speech is a key to understanding Wood’s "legacy of dissent." Wood was the rare 19th-century military officer who did not believe in Manifest Destiny and who recognized the humanity of Native Americans and sought to understand their culture. Venn thinks it is simplistic to dismiss the surrender speech as a clever fabrication; better to see it as Wood’s "most imaginative, enduring and articulate dissent," one that "elevate[d] Chief Joseph to the status of a military genius" while defending Howard.
Soldier to Advocate is a monograph, printed in a limited edition of 500 copies by La Grande publisher Wordcraft of Oregon. Its contents includes a transcription of Wood's 1877 diary, a year in which he went to Alaska on a scientific expedition before being sent to join Howard on the Nez Perce campaign. The book is full of period photographs and drawings, including numerous sketches by Wood that were discovered by Venn and are in print for the first time since 1877.
Venn got the kind of lucky break that sometimes comes to thorough researchers when he requested microfilm of The Daily Graphic, a New York newspaper, and received the bound volumes of the paper instead. He found numerous drawings by Wood, often attributed to "an Officer in the Field." Wood's drawings were the first published images of the Nez Perce.
There's plenty more in Venn's monograph: newly transcribed letters by Joseph, Wood and Howard; previously unpublished poetry relating to war and the Nez Perce by the prolific Wood; a section on the relationship between the Wood family and the Nez Perce in modern times.
Wood lived in Portland for decades, working as a lawyer and establishing himself as a liberal civic leader before moving to California and devoting himself to writing and art. His involvement in the story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce is crucial to our understanding of that essential part of Pacific Northwest history, and Venn's work breaks new ground.
What Joseph actually said that day is a matter of great debate. The conclusion of Joseph's "surrender speech" -- "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever'"-- is arguably the most famous phrase ever attributed to a Native American. It’s also highly unlikely Joseph said anything like it. Among Wood’s other talents was writing poetry, and it's more accurate to consider the surrender speech the way George Venn does, as a "disguised heroic sonnet" written by Wood, rather than as a verbatim transcription of Joseph's words.
In his book Soldier to Advocate: C.E.S. Wood’s 1877 Legacy, Venn makes the nuanced argument that the military campaign against the Nez Perce was a transformative event in Wood’s life and that at the surrender he was acting in dual roles: as an advocate for Gen. 0.0. Howard, a mentor and father figure who promoted him to aide-de-camp but whose conservative Christianity and high-handed treatment of the Indians differed from Wood’s views; and as advocate for the Nez Perce, a people Wood admired for their dignity, courage and individuality.
Venn believes the first sentence of the surrender speech- - "Tell General Howard I know his heart"-- represents Wood serving as Howard's advocate and the remaining 16 sentences are a synthesis of Nez Perce facts, translations "and his own observations and fictions." Joseph and Wood began a friendship that day that lasted the rest of their lives, but Joseph, an articulate man, never confirmed the surrender speech as his own words. Neither did anyone else who was there that day.
Wood spent the next 40 years revising and refining the surrender speech, which he first leaked to a North Dakota newspaper with the help of a Portland journalist and then published anonymously in Eastern newspapers and magazines. The effect, especially when combined with Wood's accurate, evocative drawings, was to bolster Howard's reputation while creating a positive image of the Nez Perce.
Venn, professor emeritus of English at Eastern Oregon University and an award-winning poet, believes the surrender speech is a key to understanding Wood’s "legacy of dissent." Wood was the rare 19th-century military officer who did not believe in Manifest Destiny and who recognized the humanity of Native Americans and sought to understand their culture. Venn thinks it is simplistic to dismiss the surrender speech as a clever fabrication; better to see it as Wood’s "most imaginative, enduring and articulate dissent," one that "elevate[d] Chief Joseph to the status of a military genius" while defending Howard.
Soldier to Advocate is a monograph, printed in a limited edition of 500 copies by La Grande publisher Wordcraft of Oregon. Its contents includes a transcription of Wood's 1877 diary, a year in which he went to Alaska on a scientific expedition before being sent to join Howard on the Nez Perce campaign. The book is full of period photographs and drawings, including numerous sketches by Wood that were discovered by Venn and are in print for the first time since 1877.
Venn got the kind of lucky break that sometimes comes to thorough researchers when he requested microfilm of The Daily Graphic, a New York newspaper, and received the bound volumes of the paper instead. He found numerous drawings by Wood, often attributed to "an Officer in the Field." Wood's drawings were the first published images of the Nez Perce.
There's plenty more in Venn's monograph: newly transcribed letters by Joseph, Wood and Howard; previously unpublished poetry relating to war and the Nez Perce by the prolific Wood; a section on the relationship between the Wood family and the Nez Perce in modern times.
Wood lived in Portland for decades, working as a lawyer and establishing himself as a liberal civic leader before moving to California and devoting himself to writing and art. His involvement in the story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce is crucial to our understanding of that essential part of Pacific Northwest history, and Venn's work breaks new ground.
Jeff Baker: 503-221-8165; [email protected]
from Oregon Historical Quarterly, Fall, 2007, Vol. 108.3, 492-494.
Rpt. http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/108.3/br_4.html
SOLDIER TO ADVOCATE: C.E.S. WOOD'S 1877 LEGACY
by George Venn Wordcraft of Oregon, La Grande, 2006.
Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, bibliography. 97 pages. $20.00 paper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author George Venn must be a unique person with special skills, knowledge, concerns, and insights to have conceived and completed this story — a monograph focused on Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852–1944) and Wood's relationship with Chief Joseph, the Nez Perces, and the War of 1877. The book is divided into four parts. The first describes Wood's early life and his career as a fractious 1874 West Point graduate who ended up in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, then became judge advocate to General Oliver Otis Howard. During the War of 1877 with the non-treaty Nez Perces, Wood became Howard's aide-de-camp. 1
The second part of Venn's monograph is a thoroughly edited rendition of Wood's diary, kept during the 1877 War. Here readers find the words of Wood, facing combat and striving to do his duty. Wood also used his artistic and writing skills to record the scenes of war in Idaho and Montana territories, and he leaked both words and drawings to an eager eastern press. His offerings from the field were attributed to "an officer of General Howard's staff" (p. 60). Wood was also an eyewitness to the famous Chief Joseph surrender on October 5, 1877, an event destined for legend and controversy. 2
Part 3 of the volume deals with Wood's transformation to advocate for American justice. Before, during, and after the 1877 War, his personal friendships with Native people — including Chief Joseph and many other Nez Perces — and his free-thinking caused him to abandon any belief in racial superiority, and to conclude that the 1877 War was unjust. He became an advocate for the Nez Perces in their quest to return to the Wallowa and Salmon River country, their home in the Pacific Northwest. His intellectual journey was all the more tortured due to his affection for and commitment to his old mentor, General Howard. Ultimately, his belief in justice and freedom overcame all other persuasions. 3
Wood drew on his personal knowledge of the 1877 War to articulate the realities of the racial and cultural conflict that it represented. He knew, for example, his old friend General Howard was a protagonist in the struggle with the Nez Perces. It was Howard who decided to arrest Toohoolhoolzote, the spokesman for the non-treaty tribe at the May 1877 Lapwai council. This violation of understood protocol proved a critical spark in the explosion of violence that followed. In Wood's poetic account of the meeting, it is the Indian, not the white, who makes a heroic stand for freedom:
"Too-hul-hul-soot let fall
His robe and standing, naked, powerful, a
Bronze athlete; on his breast a necklace of
Bear claws with discs of abalone shell.
His voice the sound of a great cataract afar
Or distant thunder, spoke: 'Tell him that I
'Am not afraid to die. I am afraid to live.
'I will not live a coward who refused
'My mother and denied the spirits of my fathers.
'I would rather die as a brave man ... (pp. 70–71) 4
This piece was written well after the war, but based on a real event. Wood continued to call on his wartime experiences and on his notes and diaries to search for meaning in his own life and for justice for Native Americans. 5
His advocacy was enhanced by studying at Columbia Law School and by embracing the life of an attorney in Portland, where he became deeply involved in intellectual life and an icon of cultural life. He never abandoned the question of justice for American Indians, and he continued his involvement in Nez Perce history and friendship with the non-treaty bands. 6
As noted, there is considerable controversy concerning the historicity of the Chief Joseph surrender speech. Wood, who was present at the time of the surrender, maintained for most of his days a telling that ultimately proved most likely a manipulated version that served his literary purposes. For most of his life, Wood insisted that, as he handed over his rifle, Joseph spoke the words that Wood often quoted. Wood said those words came through Arthur "Ad" Chapman and Captain John, interpreters. Venn, however, discovered a note from Wood to historian Lucullus McWhorter in 1936, which revealed that the "Speech" was a "literary item," and not verbatim record (p. 76). This does not prove that Joseph was not a great orator or that he did not say words to the effect that he is often credited. He may have said something close to the famous speech in council with his fellow tribesmen just before the actual surrender (Captain John was there, too.) But Wood's note to McWhorter does cast further doubt on the classical oration to Howard and Miles that was often promoted by Wood. 7
There is much to this fascinating book, a must-read, must-have for students of Nez Perce tribal history. The first three parts alone are compelling. Readers are most indebted to Venn, however, for including in his scheme of material the dramatic fourth portion of the book. This is the Wood legacy, both his lasting friendship with Chief Joseph and the attempts he and his family made at enhancing racial understanding. Venn describes Wood's son Erskine's stay with Joseph and later events, even through the twentieth century. The Redheart Memorial ceremony at Ft. Vancouver in 1998 and other events, such as the presentation of a beautiful stallion to the Redthunder family of Nespelem, show a dedication to healing. I was present at many of these events, and Venn has offered accurate renditions within proper historical context. This was and will remain a difficult task, but Venn has done well, and his teamwork with Wordcraft of Oregon, the publisher, has produced an outstanding work that will be a treasure now and in the future. Hopefully, we have seen the end of narrative histories of the 1877 War. Jerome Greene's Nez Perce Summer 1877 (2000) and Bruce Hampton's fine Children of Grace (1994) will have the last and perhaps best word in that department. Let us now have more of the unique kind of scholarship represented by Venn, who artistically, seamlessly ties modern tribal history to that earlier troubled time. 8
Rpt. http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ohq/108.3/br_4.html
SOLDIER TO ADVOCATE: C.E.S. WOOD'S 1877 LEGACY
by George Venn Wordcraft of Oregon, La Grande, 2006.
Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, bibliography. 97 pages. $20.00 paper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author George Venn must be a unique person with special skills, knowledge, concerns, and insights to have conceived and completed this story — a monograph focused on Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852–1944) and Wood's relationship with Chief Joseph, the Nez Perces, and the War of 1877. The book is divided into four parts. The first describes Wood's early life and his career as a fractious 1874 West Point graduate who ended up in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, then became judge advocate to General Oliver Otis Howard. During the War of 1877 with the non-treaty Nez Perces, Wood became Howard's aide-de-camp. 1
The second part of Venn's monograph is a thoroughly edited rendition of Wood's diary, kept during the 1877 War. Here readers find the words of Wood, facing combat and striving to do his duty. Wood also used his artistic and writing skills to record the scenes of war in Idaho and Montana territories, and he leaked both words and drawings to an eager eastern press. His offerings from the field were attributed to "an officer of General Howard's staff" (p. 60). Wood was also an eyewitness to the famous Chief Joseph surrender on October 5, 1877, an event destined for legend and controversy. 2
Part 3 of the volume deals with Wood's transformation to advocate for American justice. Before, during, and after the 1877 War, his personal friendships with Native people — including Chief Joseph and many other Nez Perces — and his free-thinking caused him to abandon any belief in racial superiority, and to conclude that the 1877 War was unjust. He became an advocate for the Nez Perces in their quest to return to the Wallowa and Salmon River country, their home in the Pacific Northwest. His intellectual journey was all the more tortured due to his affection for and commitment to his old mentor, General Howard. Ultimately, his belief in justice and freedom overcame all other persuasions. 3
Wood drew on his personal knowledge of the 1877 War to articulate the realities of the racial and cultural conflict that it represented. He knew, for example, his old friend General Howard was a protagonist in the struggle with the Nez Perces. It was Howard who decided to arrest Toohoolhoolzote, the spokesman for the non-treaty tribe at the May 1877 Lapwai council. This violation of understood protocol proved a critical spark in the explosion of violence that followed. In Wood's poetic account of the meeting, it is the Indian, not the white, who makes a heroic stand for freedom:
"Too-hul-hul-soot let fall
His robe and standing, naked, powerful, a
Bronze athlete; on his breast a necklace of
Bear claws with discs of abalone shell.
His voice the sound of a great cataract afar
Or distant thunder, spoke: 'Tell him that I
'Am not afraid to die. I am afraid to live.
'I will not live a coward who refused
'My mother and denied the spirits of my fathers.
'I would rather die as a brave man ... (pp. 70–71) 4
This piece was written well after the war, but based on a real event. Wood continued to call on his wartime experiences and on his notes and diaries to search for meaning in his own life and for justice for Native Americans. 5
His advocacy was enhanced by studying at Columbia Law School and by embracing the life of an attorney in Portland, where he became deeply involved in intellectual life and an icon of cultural life. He never abandoned the question of justice for American Indians, and he continued his involvement in Nez Perce history and friendship with the non-treaty bands. 6
As noted, there is considerable controversy concerning the historicity of the Chief Joseph surrender speech. Wood, who was present at the time of the surrender, maintained for most of his days a telling that ultimately proved most likely a manipulated version that served his literary purposes. For most of his life, Wood insisted that, as he handed over his rifle, Joseph spoke the words that Wood often quoted. Wood said those words came through Arthur "Ad" Chapman and Captain John, interpreters. Venn, however, discovered a note from Wood to historian Lucullus McWhorter in 1936, which revealed that the "Speech" was a "literary item," and not verbatim record (p. 76). This does not prove that Joseph was not a great orator or that he did not say words to the effect that he is often credited. He may have said something close to the famous speech in council with his fellow tribesmen just before the actual surrender (Captain John was there, too.) But Wood's note to McWhorter does cast further doubt on the classical oration to Howard and Miles that was often promoted by Wood. 7
There is much to this fascinating book, a must-read, must-have for students of Nez Perce tribal history. The first three parts alone are compelling. Readers are most indebted to Venn, however, for including in his scheme of material the dramatic fourth portion of the book. This is the Wood legacy, both his lasting friendship with Chief Joseph and the attempts he and his family made at enhancing racial understanding. Venn describes Wood's son Erskine's stay with Joseph and later events, even through the twentieth century. The Redheart Memorial ceremony at Ft. Vancouver in 1998 and other events, such as the presentation of a beautiful stallion to the Redthunder family of Nespelem, show a dedication to healing. I was present at many of these events, and Venn has offered accurate renditions within proper historical context. This was and will remain a difficult task, but Venn has done well, and his teamwork with Wordcraft of Oregon, the publisher, has produced an outstanding work that will be a treasure now and in the future. Hopefully, we have seen the end of narrative histories of the 1877 War. Jerome Greene's Nez Perce Summer 1877 (2000) and Bruce Hampton's fine Children of Grace (1994) will have the last and perhaps best word in that department. Let us now have more of the unique kind of scholarship represented by Venn, who artistically, seamlessly ties modern tribal history to that earlier troubled time. 8
Steven R. Evans
Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho
Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho
JOSEPH'S ADVOCATE: Book illuminates Army lieutenant's sympathy to Nez Perce cause
By KELLY ANDERSSON for the Missoulian
By KELLY ANDERSSON for the Missoulian
Chief Joseph and several of his family members after the war. Courtesy photo
|
“Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Looking Glass is dead. Toloohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead.
“It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are - perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. “Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” That speech, at the Bear Paw battlefield in northern Montana on Oct. 5, 1877, is one of the most recognized moments in history related to Indian culture and legend. |
But Chief Joseph didn't make that speech. It was written by a cavalry soldier.
Joseph lived for 27 years after the war, and he never was allowed to return to his Nez Perce homeland in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon. Though he was known for his leadership and articulate speeches - both before and after the war - he never did acknowledge those words as his own. Neither did anyone else who was there on that day when the Nez Perce agreed to stop fighting.
Lt. C.E.S. Wood, a soldier under Gen. Oliver O. Howard, had during the war become sympathetic to the plight of the Nez Perce - who lost friends and family members at battlefields in five states. Wood remained loyal to his commanding officer for many years, however, and his struggle to balance that loyalty with his perspective on the war was a dilemma for him.
His 1877 drawings, the only eyewitness images of the war, are included in a recent book, along with his diary. “Soldier to Advocate: C.E.S. Wood's 1877 Legacy,” by Oregon author George Venn, was published in fall 2007 and was featured in a recent special on Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Charles Erskine Scott Wood served as Howard's aide-de-camp and was tasked with defending the general's reputation as a successful Indian fighter - by leaking sketches and stories to the New York press. He thus played an important role, says Venn, “in what historians generally agree was the ‘meanest, most contemptible, least justifiable thing that the United States was ever guilty of' - the U.S. Army's eviction and 1,700-mile pursuit of around 800 fleeing and fighting nontreaty Nez Perce men, women and children with their baggage and horse herd.”
Literary biography, according to Venn, is a cumulative art - each successive biographer hopes to add new information, correct errors and offer interpretations. And his work does just that - Nez Perce historian Otis Halfmoon said the book adds that “missing piece” to some of the misunderstandings of the Nez Perce War.
The book is actually a monograph - part of a longer work in progress with which Venn's been involved for more than 10 years. Its scholarly style, with copious footnotes and bracketed comments throughout, may prove a bit tedious if you read only romance novels and newspapers. But Venn's notes provide a wealth of background and understanding for readers.
Wood gradually transitioned from a more-or-less loyal soldier to a man whose advocacy and friendship for the Nez
Perce lasted decades. Along with his diary entry for July 17, Venn's notes clarify this transition.
The troops were camped on the east bank of the Clearwater River at Kamiah, and they'd captured a number of prisoners. “Red Heart's band of 35 non-combatants - just returning from buffalo hunting in Montana - were designated ‘hostile' when they voluntarily surrendered,” Venn explains.
Wood was responsible for the prisoners; his brief diary entry speaks volumes about his shifting attitude.
“Night with the prisoners. Musings on the unhappy people and the fate before them. Thoughts on the Indian as a human being, a man and brother. His strange history. Inability to fuse with the white man.”
Though Wood wrote the first sentence of that famous “Chief Joseph speech” during his time as Howard's advocate, he laced the other 16 sentences together later, hoping to “redeem their suffering and the injustice of their situation through the grace and strength of impassioned language.”
In 1918, Wood's lines depicted his postwar perspective:
I have lived with my brown brothers
Of the wilderness,
And found them a mystery.
The cunning of the swift-darting trout
A mystery, also;
The wisdom of voyaging birds;
The gophers' winter-sleep;
The knowledge of the bees.
All a mystery.
I have lain out with the brown men
And know they are favored.
Nature whispered to them her secrets,
But passed me by.
Though the bulk of the book illuminates Wood's diary and experiences during the war, Venn offers readers an in-depth view of the soldier's life. The first section details Wood's early years, including his travels to the Northwest and to Alaska - and his budding friendship with Howard.
The last section of the book, though, is truly moving. After the war, as the friendship with Joseph's family deepened, Wood's young son, Erskine, spent two summers at Joseph's home on the Colville Reservation. Wood wrote to Erskine, telling him that he wanted to present a gift to Joseph, and that Erskine should find out what Joseph would like for a gift.
Joseph thought for a long time and replied that he would like a horse - a good stallion to improve his herd.
But Erskine didn't get it. He said later he didn't understand the value of a horse, so he didn't tell his father what Joseph said. Erskine in his later years came to deeply regret that decision, and he died in 1983 at the age of 104. But the Wood family descendants managed to fulfill Joseph's request. Funds were raised and a suitable Appaloosa stallion was found.
At a 1997 gathering in a meadow in the Nez Perce homeland, beneath the craggy peaks of the Wallowa Mountains, the stallion was presented by the Wood family to its new owners, the descendants of Chief Joseph - more than 100 years after he had requested a horse and 120 years after the war.
Lt. C.E.S. Wood has been called the one officer who “rejected the fundamental assumption of American civilization's superiority.” His life was one of conflicting loyalties and choices; in the end, though, Wood chose friendship and respect for Chief Joseph and his people.
“Those choices and decisions and transformations,” says Venn, “make Wood's legacy essential and contemporary - with the Wallowa band still living in exile, the ownership of the Wallowa valley still an open question, and apology to, meaningful restitution for, and repatriation of Joseph's exiled non-treaty band nowhere in sight.”
Joseph lived for 27 years after the war, and he never was allowed to return to his Nez Perce homeland in the Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon. Though he was known for his leadership and articulate speeches - both before and after the war - he never did acknowledge those words as his own. Neither did anyone else who was there on that day when the Nez Perce agreed to stop fighting.
Lt. C.E.S. Wood, a soldier under Gen. Oliver O. Howard, had during the war become sympathetic to the plight of the Nez Perce - who lost friends and family members at battlefields in five states. Wood remained loyal to his commanding officer for many years, however, and his struggle to balance that loyalty with his perspective on the war was a dilemma for him.
His 1877 drawings, the only eyewitness images of the war, are included in a recent book, along with his diary. “Soldier to Advocate: C.E.S. Wood's 1877 Legacy,” by Oregon author George Venn, was published in fall 2007 and was featured in a recent special on Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Charles Erskine Scott Wood served as Howard's aide-de-camp and was tasked with defending the general's reputation as a successful Indian fighter - by leaking sketches and stories to the New York press. He thus played an important role, says Venn, “in what historians generally agree was the ‘meanest, most contemptible, least justifiable thing that the United States was ever guilty of' - the U.S. Army's eviction and 1,700-mile pursuit of around 800 fleeing and fighting nontreaty Nez Perce men, women and children with their baggage and horse herd.”
Literary biography, according to Venn, is a cumulative art - each successive biographer hopes to add new information, correct errors and offer interpretations. And his work does just that - Nez Perce historian Otis Halfmoon said the book adds that “missing piece” to some of the misunderstandings of the Nez Perce War.
The book is actually a monograph - part of a longer work in progress with which Venn's been involved for more than 10 years. Its scholarly style, with copious footnotes and bracketed comments throughout, may prove a bit tedious if you read only romance novels and newspapers. But Venn's notes provide a wealth of background and understanding for readers.
Wood gradually transitioned from a more-or-less loyal soldier to a man whose advocacy and friendship for the Nez
Perce lasted decades. Along with his diary entry for July 17, Venn's notes clarify this transition.
The troops were camped on the east bank of the Clearwater River at Kamiah, and they'd captured a number of prisoners. “Red Heart's band of 35 non-combatants - just returning from buffalo hunting in Montana - were designated ‘hostile' when they voluntarily surrendered,” Venn explains.
Wood was responsible for the prisoners; his brief diary entry speaks volumes about his shifting attitude.
“Night with the prisoners. Musings on the unhappy people and the fate before them. Thoughts on the Indian as a human being, a man and brother. His strange history. Inability to fuse with the white man.”
Though Wood wrote the first sentence of that famous “Chief Joseph speech” during his time as Howard's advocate, he laced the other 16 sentences together later, hoping to “redeem their suffering and the injustice of their situation through the grace and strength of impassioned language.”
In 1918, Wood's lines depicted his postwar perspective:
I have lived with my brown brothers
Of the wilderness,
And found them a mystery.
The cunning of the swift-darting trout
A mystery, also;
The wisdom of voyaging birds;
The gophers' winter-sleep;
The knowledge of the bees.
All a mystery.
I have lain out with the brown men
And know they are favored.
Nature whispered to them her secrets,
But passed me by.
Though the bulk of the book illuminates Wood's diary and experiences during the war, Venn offers readers an in-depth view of the soldier's life. The first section details Wood's early years, including his travels to the Northwest and to Alaska - and his budding friendship with Howard.
The last section of the book, though, is truly moving. After the war, as the friendship with Joseph's family deepened, Wood's young son, Erskine, spent two summers at Joseph's home on the Colville Reservation. Wood wrote to Erskine, telling him that he wanted to present a gift to Joseph, and that Erskine should find out what Joseph would like for a gift.
Joseph thought for a long time and replied that he would like a horse - a good stallion to improve his herd.
But Erskine didn't get it. He said later he didn't understand the value of a horse, so he didn't tell his father what Joseph said. Erskine in his later years came to deeply regret that decision, and he died in 1983 at the age of 104. But the Wood family descendants managed to fulfill Joseph's request. Funds were raised and a suitable Appaloosa stallion was found.
At a 1997 gathering in a meadow in the Nez Perce homeland, beneath the craggy peaks of the Wallowa Mountains, the stallion was presented by the Wood family to its new owners, the descendants of Chief Joseph - more than 100 years after he had requested a horse and 120 years after the war.
Lt. C.E.S. Wood has been called the one officer who “rejected the fundamental assumption of American civilization's superiority.” His life was one of conflicting loyalties and choices; in the end, though, Wood chose friendship and respect for Chief Joseph and his people.
“Those choices and decisions and transformations,” says Venn, “make Wood's legacy essential and contemporary - with the Wallowa band still living in exile, the ownership of the Wallowa valley still an open question, and apology to, meaningful restitution for, and repatriation of Joseph's exiled non-treaty band nowhere in sight.”
Kelly Andersson is a freelance writer and contributor to the Missoulian Book Life page. She lives in the Bitterroot Valley.
Author George Venn must be a unique person with special skills, knowledge, concerns, and insights to have conceived and completed this story C a monograph focused on Charles Erskine Scott Wood (1852B1944) and Wood's relationship with Chief Joseph, the Nez Perces, and the War of 1877...*** There is much to this fascinating book, a must-read, must-have for students of Nez Perce tribal history. The first three parts alone are compelling. Readers are most indebted to Venn, however, for including in his scheme of material the dramatic fourth portion of the book. This is the Wood legacy, both his lasting friendship with Chief Joseph and the attempts he and his family made at enhancing racial understanding. *** Let us now have more of the unique kind of scholarship represented by Venn, who artistically, seamlessly ties modern tribal history to that earlier troubled time.
—Steven R. Evans, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Fall, 2007
______________________________________________________________________________
***Soldier to Advocate is useful for its portrayal of the army's pursuit of the Nez Perce and its descriptions of soldiers' lives in some of the final Indian wars. The book is especially valuable for its account of an individual army officer who felt more than a little sympathy for those who were supposed to be his enemy and who used his literary talents to try to tell their story.
—Brian Casserly Pacific Northwest Quarterly Winter 2006/2007
_____________________________________________________________________________
On a crucial figure in the war and the shaping of the popular image of Joseph, see George Venn's excellent Soldier to Advocate: C.E. S Wood's 1877 Legacy: A Soldier's Unpublished Diary, Drawings, Poetry, and Letters of Alaska and the Nez Perce Conflict
(La Grande, OR: Wordcraft of Oregon, 2006).
—Elliott West, author of The Last Indian War (Oxford U Press, 2009)
_________________________________________________________________
Thank you for that wonderful publication, ASoldier to Advocate.@ It=s rich, rich, rich, and I congratulate you.
—Alvin Josephy, historian and author of The Nez Perce Indians and The Opening of the Pacific Northwest
__________________________________________________________________
I highly recommend that any serious student of the Nez Perce campaign read this excellent and rich piece of work. Mr. Venn's research in Soldier to Advocate will add that Amissing piece to some of the misunderstandings of the Nez Perce war.
—W. Otis Halfmoon (Nez Perce), former Idaho Unit Manager, Nez Perce National Historical Park
__________________________________________________________________
In this carefully researched, richly illustrated presentation of Lieutenant C. E. S. Wood's Nez Perce War diary, George Venn offers readers a compelling introduction to a most unusual army officer. Wood appeals to us because of his modern sensibilities, compassion for the enemy, and generosity of spirit. His diary demonstrates the terrible cost of war. His life represents the potential for redemption. Wood experienced the dark side of conquest and tried to make amendsB a legacy his descendents carry on today.
—Sherry L. Smith, Southern Methodist University,
author of Reimagining Indians: Native Americans Through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940
__________________________________________________________________
George Venn's work is a superb contribution to our knowledge of the Nez Perce War, particularly as it respects judgments about Charles E. S. Wood as historian, participant, and literary influence.
—Jerome A. Greene, historian and author of Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U. S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis
______________________________________________________________________________
I read Soldier to Advocate with delight, and the illustrations are a treasure house of evocative materials. This seems to me to be the last word on this whole period of Wood's biography.
—Paul Merchant, Director, the William Stafford Archives, Aubrey Watzek Library, Lewis and Clark College
_____________________________________________________________________________
The intellectual and scholarly effort in this book is impressive and rewarding, and so are the layout and fascinating photographs and sketches. I find Soldier to Advocate immensely readable and welcome it into print.
—Tim Barnes, poet and historian, Portland Community College,
co-editor of Wood Works: The Life and Writings of Charles Erskine Scott Wood (OSU Press,1997)
—Steven R. Evans, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Fall, 2007
______________________________________________________________________________
***Soldier to Advocate is useful for its portrayal of the army's pursuit of the Nez Perce and its descriptions of soldiers' lives in some of the final Indian wars. The book is especially valuable for its account of an individual army officer who felt more than a little sympathy for those who were supposed to be his enemy and who used his literary talents to try to tell their story.
—Brian Casserly Pacific Northwest Quarterly Winter 2006/2007
_____________________________________________________________________________
On a crucial figure in the war and the shaping of the popular image of Joseph, see George Venn's excellent Soldier to Advocate: C.E. S Wood's 1877 Legacy: A Soldier's Unpublished Diary, Drawings, Poetry, and Letters of Alaska and the Nez Perce Conflict
(La Grande, OR: Wordcraft of Oregon, 2006).
—Elliott West, author of The Last Indian War (Oxford U Press, 2009)
_________________________________________________________________
Thank you for that wonderful publication, ASoldier to Advocate.@ It=s rich, rich, rich, and I congratulate you.
—Alvin Josephy, historian and author of The Nez Perce Indians and The Opening of the Pacific Northwest
__________________________________________________________________
I highly recommend that any serious student of the Nez Perce campaign read this excellent and rich piece of work. Mr. Venn's research in Soldier to Advocate will add that Amissing piece to some of the misunderstandings of the Nez Perce war.
—W. Otis Halfmoon (Nez Perce), former Idaho Unit Manager, Nez Perce National Historical Park
__________________________________________________________________
In this carefully researched, richly illustrated presentation of Lieutenant C. E. S. Wood's Nez Perce War diary, George Venn offers readers a compelling introduction to a most unusual army officer. Wood appeals to us because of his modern sensibilities, compassion for the enemy, and generosity of spirit. His diary demonstrates the terrible cost of war. His life represents the potential for redemption. Wood experienced the dark side of conquest and tried to make amendsB a legacy his descendents carry on today.
—Sherry L. Smith, Southern Methodist University,
author of Reimagining Indians: Native Americans Through Anglo Eyes, 1880-1940
__________________________________________________________________
George Venn's work is a superb contribution to our knowledge of the Nez Perce War, particularly as it respects judgments about Charles E. S. Wood as historian, participant, and literary influence.
—Jerome A. Greene, historian and author of Nez Perce Summer, 1877: The U. S. Army and the Nee-Me-Poo Crisis
______________________________________________________________________________
I read Soldier to Advocate with delight, and the illustrations are a treasure house of evocative materials. This seems to me to be the last word on this whole period of Wood's biography.
—Paul Merchant, Director, the William Stafford Archives, Aubrey Watzek Library, Lewis and Clark College
_____________________________________________________________________________
The intellectual and scholarly effort in this book is impressive and rewarding, and so are the layout and fascinating photographs and sketches. I find Soldier to Advocate immensely readable and welcome it into print.
—Tim Barnes, poet and historian, Portland Community College,
co-editor of Wood Works: The Life and Writings of Charles Erskine Scott Wood (OSU Press,1997)