Chief Joseph's Last Years Summary

The book I will be analyzing is, Kopet: A Documentary Narrative of Chief Joseph’s Last Year’s by M. Gidley. It was published in 1981 in Seattle, Washington, United States of America. This book is split up into three different sections: 1. Starting Out from the Meany Papers An introduction 2. Chief Joseph of the Nez Peres A chronology 3. White Witnesses to Chief Joseph’s End A Narrative This book discusses the last few years of Chief Joseph’s life, the white people who he knew at that time, and a generalized look into the history of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perces people from 1750 to 1905. It was very interesting how Gidley organized his book, but it was done in a very nice uniformed way that was easy to follow. After reading, it makes sense as to why it was constructed the way it was. This book not only discusses information about Chief Josephs last years but also the white men that were there with him and Meany. These are the white men that Gidley mentions to have known Chief Joseph and Meany. Albert M. Anderson (1862 – 1928) was a businessman and an Indian Agent, and Edward S. Curtis …show more content…
The people lived a very sad life especially Chief Joseph. All he wanted was to go back home, and never gave up his fight with the US Government but sadly, he never made his dream come true. I think the liveliest part of this book was in the third section, because of all the first person accounts. It made me feel like I was there with them experiencing this through their letters to Professor Meany and documentations Meany wrote for his book that was never made. I believe that is what Gidley was shooting for. He wanted us to feel what these white men felt to be touched by these Indian men, which at the time did not happen too