美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Thunder In The Mountains' Tells Tragedy Of Two Strong, Opposing Leaders

 

RAY SUAREZ, HOST:

Now to a lesser¹ known story about race relations in this country. After the Civil War and Reconstruction², the U.S. looked West to the unresolved conflicts over land rights and sovereignty with the country's native peoples. In the Pacific Northwest, that set two men on a collision course, General O.O. Howard, the military commander in present day Oregon and Washington and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce who wanted his band to remain on its ancestral lands.

A new book "Thunder On The Mountain" (ph) is a detailed³ look at the tragedy of these two leaders and two radically⁴ different ways of seeing the world. Author Daniel Scharfstein is a professor of law and history at Vanderbilt University. He joins me from Nashville. Welcome to the program.

DANIEL SCHARFSTEIN: Thanks, Ray.

SUAREZ: I think some people will have heard the name Chief Joseph, but for those who have not, tell us about him.

SCHARFSTEIN: Chief Joseph was a leader of a small band of Nez Perce Indians in the far Northeastern corner of Oregon in the Wallowa Valley. And in the early 1870s when he was about 30 years old, settlers started encroaching on his ancestral lands, and he took it upon himself to advocate for his people retaining their property. And he was remarkably⁵ successful in spreading his message.

But in 1877, the United States went to war against his band and several other bands that refused to move on to a reservation in Idaho. And it was a three-and-a-half-month odyssey⁶ and ordeal⁷. And after the war, he emerged as one of the most prominent dissenting⁹ figures from the backlash to Reconstruction.

SUAREZ: On the other side of this conflict, you have Oliver Otis Howard, another fascinating character. Tell us about him.

SCHARFSTEIN: Oliver Otis Howard was a Maine Yankee and a West Point graduate. He felt God had put him on Earth for a special mission, fighting for the Union, fighting to abolish slavery was his way of serving God. And after the war, he was appointed to be the commissioner¹⁰ of the Freedmen's Bureau. It was a new agency that was designed to help some 4 million newly freed men, women and children move from being held as slaves to being able to claim their citizenship¹¹.

SUAREZ: And Howard University is named for him, right?

SCHARFSTEIN: That's right. When Howard was in the process of being founded at the end of 1866, he was instrumental in convincing people to expand its mission just from training preachers to being a full university with a law school and a medical school and a normal school to train teachers. He was very proud of Howard University, and he didn't want it named after him.

But he was such an important figure in its founding that people said, well, if you want to pretend it's named after someone else named Howard you can do that. But we're naming it Howard.

SUAREZ: Looking back at the Pacific Northwest at this time, we have the centuries of unhappy history between European settlers heading West coming up against Native peoples long settled in the places where they were living. Chief Joseph, as you bring us to him in the pages of your book, is a remarkable¹² figure, someone who the United States should have been able to do business with. And again and again, it seems like they pull dissent⁸ and tragedy out of the jaws¹³ of victory and peace.

SCHARFSTEIN: It's really true. Joseph was someone who repeatedly expressed his interest in peace. He was very flexible, and early on as he was advocating for his people, he got a sense of how policy was made and how decisions were made and how to reach the center of American power. He didn't speak English. Mainly he spoke¹⁴ Nez Perce. But at the same time, he was able to gain remarkable traction¹⁵ for his message.

SUAREZ: The war begins. It's terrible, and there are terrible casualties on all sides. But even during this war, there seemed to be break points where something better, something different is in grasp, and both sides just can't get there. Does it have anything to tell us today about the continuing lives of Native Americans in this country about our past and the way Americans have confronted other kinds of people in the world? Is there something for us to learn about ourselves by understanding what happened better in the 18th century?

SCHARFSTEIN: I think so. I think that was a crucial period in our history because it was the time when the battles that we're still fighting were set, you know, battles over the contours of liberty and equality over the relationship between race and citizenship and really over the proper size, scope and role of government. And in Joseph's story, I think we see the nature and power and necessity of protest and moral witness.

You know, his rights whether they were laid out by treaty or by our common humanity, they didn't just exist, and they didn't - they weren't just pronounced from on high. I think he had a real sense that these rights had to be claimed and that these rights gained meaning every day in practice.

SUAREZ: Daniel Scharfstein - his book is "Thunder In The Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War." Professor, thanks for joining us.

SCHARFSTEIN: Thank you so much, Ray.

1 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

2 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

3 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

4 radically   

ad.根本地，本质地

参考例句：

• I think we may have to rethink our policies fairly radically. 我认为我们可能要对我们的政策进行根本的反思。
• The health service must be radically reformed. 公共医疗卫生服务必须进行彻底改革。

5 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

6 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

7 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

8 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

9 dissenting   

adj.不同意的

参考例句：

• He can't tolerate dissenting views. 他不能容纳不同意见。
• A dissenting opinion came from the aunt . 姑妈却提出不赞同的意见。

10 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

11 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

12 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

13 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 traction   

n.牵引；附着摩擦力

参考例句：

• I'll show you how the traction is applied.我会让你看如何做这种牵引。
• She's injured her back and is in traction for a month.她背部受伤，正在作一个月的牵引治疗。