Full text
I Will Fight No More Forever
Harper's Weekly, vol. 21, no. 1090 (17 November 1877), p. 906, via ushistory.education; variant from Project Gutenberg #58781, Norman B. Wood, Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs (Aurora, Ill., 1906)
Source
Source: Harper's Weekly, vol. 21, no. 1090 (17 November 1877), p. 906, via ushistory.education; variant from Project Gutenberg #58781, Norman B. Wood, Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs (Aurora, Ill., 1906) Source URL: https://ushistory.education/historical-documents/chief-josephs-surrender-speech/ ; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58781 Public domain basis: Spoken 5 October 1877 at the Bear Paw Mountains, Montana Territory, through an interpreter, and taken down by Lt. C. E. S. Wood; printed 1877 and 1906; public domain. Coverage: Complete: the standard 1877 text and the 1906 variant.
# I Will Fight No More Forever
As printed in Harper's Weekly, 17 November 1877
Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking-Glass is dead, Ta-hool-hool-shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say 'Yes' or 'No.' He who led on 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.
Variant: as given in Norman B. Wood, Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs (1906)
"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before I have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking-Glass is dead; Too-Hool-Hool-Suit is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men (Ollacut) 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 against the white man forever."