In 1900, In-Mut-Too-Yah-Lat-Tat or Chief Joseph of the Wallowa Nez Perce made one of his many fruitless trips to Washington, attempting to regain his ancestral lands on the Walla Walla...
In 1900, In-Mut-Too-Yah-Lat-Tat or Chief Joseph of the Wallowa Nez Perce made one of his many fruitless trips to Washington, attempting to regain his ancestral lands on the Walla Walla River. He was photographed by De Lancey Gill, who was the head of the Bureau of American Ethnography at the time, and photographed many indigenous delegates who traveled to Washington. In-Mut-Too-Yah-Lat-Tat gained considerable fame during the Nez Perce war, which lasted into his old age, and preserved his fame in the east despite his failing efforts in his homeland along the Walla Walla River. We find not other examples of this iconic portrait in the trade, despite it being one of the classic portrayals of the chief in his advanced age. He would die four years after the photograph was taken, in 1904, of an unspecified illness.