Product Description

Of their earliest origins the Nez Perce know only legendary tales, but even in the story of their beginnings is found evidence of a superior and intelligent people whose religion had developed beyond the most primitive type of worship into one with well-established ethical and moral codes.

How these peaceable and prosperous people were oppressed and persecuted, misunderstood, and badgered, beyond endurance and almost beyond honor, yet avoided war until fateful forces pushed them into it, is disclosed in sources made available to McWhorter by his Indian collaborators.

It is the Nez Perce War of 1877 which forms the major portion of the book, and, without doubt, here is the most exhaustive and thorough examination of that dramatic struggle, the last great Indian war on this continent.

It should be noted that HEAR ME, MY CHIEFS! is not an extension of YELLOW WOLF (the autobiography of one of the last surviving warriors of the Nez Perce War narrated to McWhorter), but a companion volume in which the entire story of the Nez Perce tribe is unfolded in an inclusive work of inestimable value.

Few men knew the heart and mind of the Indian so thouroughly as L.V. McWhorter, whose devotion to the Nez Perces did not rest in mere appreciation; but took permanent form by recording, through years of patient questioning, their legends and history. When Lucullus McWhorter died in 1944, the task was completed by his son, assisted by members of the staff of the State College of Washington.

This is not just a glorified story of Indians but one which sifts the evidence to find the truth. Wherever words were written concerning the Nez Perces, McWhorter ferreted them out. He contrasted the reminiscences of generals, missionaries, and pioneers with the witness of the Indians, and brought together material accumulated from files of newspapers, old journals, and letters.

Written without dullness, for the richness of the material is derived largely from the quoted and clearly beautiful expressions of the Indian friends of McWhorter, HEAR ME, MY CHIEFS! is a book for the historian, and also for the general reader, who will find here the only complete and definitive record of the Nez Perce Indians with the puzzling aspects of the Nez Perce War of 1877 clarified by the Indians themselves.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1147089 in Books
• Published on: 1984-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Review
Hear Me, My Chiefs! will appeal to scholars of western history as well as general collectors of Americana. It is well illustrated with photographs and maps, is thoroughly documented, and contains a very useful bibliography. Credit the Caxton Printers with another fine addition to their growing list of works on western development. -- Robert G. Athearn, U of Colorado, Montana magazine, Helena, MT, January 1953

About the Author
Lucullus Virgil McWhorter was noted from his earliest childhood for his interest in everything pertaining to Indians. When a small boy, he persuaded his sister to bore his ears in Indian fashion, and he wore his hair shoulder-length until captured by his brothers on the day a visiting minister was about to make a call.

Born in 1860, in a log cabin situated on the upper water of the Monongahela River, in what is now West Virginia, he attended a one-room log cabin school four months of the year, but supplemented his education by wide reading in the classics from the library of his father, who was a Universalist minister.

His early interest in archaeological readings led to an exploration of Indian remains in his own locality, and he became an expert on flint and stone implements. His discoveries were catalogued and are now in the Department of State Archives and History in West Virginia.

In 1897 he moved his family to historic Fort Jefferson, Ohio, and in 1903 his lifelong desire to go West was realized when he moved to North Yakima, Washington, near the Yakima Indian Reservation, where he continued in the livestock business in which he had established himself earlier.

He soon won the friendship of the Yakimas, entering into their activities, learning their legends. They accepted him as one of them and he was adopted into Chief Yoomteebee's council. He soon crossed swords with landgrabbers and with the misguided bureaucracy of the old Indian Department. The battle against injustice continued until mounting complaints (through his influence) caused a complete shake up, and defeat of the Act of March 6, 1906. He, in one instance, prevented the Yakimas from being dispossessed of millions of dollars worth of land and water rights.

He is the author of BORDER SETTLERS OF NORTHWESTERN VIRGINIA; THE CRIME AGAINST THE YAKIMAS; THE DISCARDS; THE TRAGEDY OF THE WAHK-SHUM, and, in collaboration with H.D. Guie, ADVENTURES IN GEYSER LAND. YELLOW WOLF, HIS OWN STORY was narrated to McWhorter, and documented by him. It was published in 1940 by The Caxton Printers, Ltd.

L.V. McWhorter died in 1944, leaving his manuscript in the hands his son, V.O. McWhorter, who organized this book with the assistance of the staff of State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington.

Customer Reviews

A masterpiece of Native American history
L. V. McWhorter's work first came to the notice of those interested in Native American Studies with the 1940 publication of Yellow Wolf: His Own Story, an outstanding first-person account of a warrior named who fought in the 1877 Nez Perce War. This compelled McWhorter to go deeper into his researches on the history and legends of the Nez Perce people. He died in 1944 before completing his manuscript for Hear Me, My Chiefs!: Nez Perce Legend & History. It was left to his son, V. O. McWhorter to organize his father's voluminous materials with the staff invaluable assistance of the State College of Washington at Pullman (which subsequently became Washington State University). That posthumous collaboration was published in 1952. Long out of print, the Caxton Press has now brought out Hear Me, My Chiefs! in a new addition for a new generation of readers. Simply put, no personal or academic Native American Studies library collection can be considered complete or comprehensive without the inclusion of a copy of L. V. McWhorter's masterpiece of Native American history, Hear Me, My Chiefs!: Nez Perce Legends & History.

The true story of the Nez Perce
This is an excellent book if you are interested in the Native American side of the story. It is well researched and documented. I recommend it to anyone interested in the history of the pre and post period of native struggles.