Agility and the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway

As the summer humidity gripped most of the country I headed west to Wyoming and Montana for a vacation in the high country of the Tetons and Yellowstone. This rich landscape is full of both natural beauty and history. The West is inhabited by a fierce landscape with harsh changing weather that manifests as hot days and cooler nights during the summer with cold winter days and winds chilling the Mountain West winters.

Agility is a key force which kept many western settlers, Native peoples, and wildlife alive. I want to recount the story and history that I followed during a drive along the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway - Travel Wyoming from Cody, Wyoming to Cooke City, Montana which serves as the gateway to the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. I took the picture above along the trail where Chief Joseph (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt), the leader of the wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of the Nez Perce led 1,000 tribal members in 1877. This march ended up being an 1,800-mile journey after the Battle of the Big Hole as Chief Joseph led his people fleeing the US Calvary who were attempting to place his tribe on a reservation to open additional western lands for American settlers to establish ranches.

The calvary and the Nez Perce both maneuvered people and horses in an agile fashion because being able to adapt to changes over following a plan is the only way to survive in the rugged west. The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway runs for 45 miles in a beautiful part of the country outside of Yellowstone National Park and follows the path that the traveling party ventured during their three-month journey. It was in this high country that the Nez Perce made a daring escape.

The traveling party used the resources they had to escape through the rugged mountains. Horses were used to moving around and creating a dust cloud which allowed the escape through a narrow mountain pass which was previously thought to be impassable. The party continued its journey from what is now Northwestern Wyoming north towards Canada since Chief Joseph believed the Canadian frontier would provide freedom much like it did to Sitting Bull who fled north after the Battle of the Little Big Horn the year before.

While agility led the party out of one predicament it did not drive the Nez Perce to freedom in Canada as they were captured in Northern Montana worn down from the journey. In the aftermath of the surrender Chief Joseph and the members of his traveling party spent time in a prisoner of war camp at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for around eight months before a move to a reservation in Indian Territory (current day Oklahoma). Chief Joseph made a trip to Washington, D.C. in 1879 to return his people to a reservation in their ancestral homeland in the Pacific Northwest. Chief Joseph was able to negotiate an agreement for a reservation in the Pacific Northwest for his tribe, but the agreement took many years and was reached in 1885, by which time many of his fellow Nez Perce passed away from diseases. By the time of his death in 1904 the Western landscape had dramatically changed from that of the world he was born into in 1840. Like any era, major changes occurred during the life of Chief Joseph. The West he was born in was forever altered by the movement of Americans and resulted in fewer untamed wild lands and  rugged western scenery.

The lessons of this one western tale are like many others of the rugged and beautiful scenery. While plans are helpful, being able to be agile and adjust is crucial to navigating the world regardless of what area you are involved in or what challenges you face. The world around you will shape you. Lands shape the actions people and animals take while the true complexity of groups and interactions with others is often multifaceted and more complex than we think. In my opinion one of the best ways to get in touch with your thoughts and understand how to be more agile is to head to the mountains and engage in the beautiful western landscape.

You do not need to travel to do this as you can place yourself in the mindset by envisioning the scenery and adapting to the landscape with a plan in mind and the understanding that that plan will be altered and changed over time. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” Wherever you are in your own personal journey I encourage you to take the time to slow down, take stock of what is important, and make sure your actions align and bring you closer to the person who you want to be with the desired outcomes you have.