Colville Reservation….

After 8 days of travel and 1,500 miles from where we began in Telluride, Colorado,
we finally arrived at  the Grand Coulee Dam near the Colville Reservation in the state of Washington,
where we believed our Chief Joseph was buried.

After spending the night at a hotel near the dam, we drove a remote road to the Colville Reservation and located Chief Joseph's gravesite in a small dusty cemetery.
If it were not for the state's historical society, we wondered what kind of monument would have been built for him. This site is not well known, or easy to find.
 It might confuse some that come to Joseph, Oregon to pay their respects
perhaps unknowingly at his father's grave.

I am not well versed on what really happened in his life that would have caused him to live here with other non-treaty tribes instead of on the Nez Perce land in Idaho,
however I gleaned that his life was not a happy one here.

It was noted by the doctor that his cause of death,

"was a broken heart".

Bid and I held hands and said another 'forgiveness' prayer for all of us.

Release, Release, Realease……

Those were not the words of the prayer, but they were our intention, 

and we felt it working on us as well.

We left the gravesite knowing his spirit was not there, 

with the general feeling that we were all at peace,

and that collectively our work to get there had been a good thing.

We also began to notice the smoke of the wild fires in that area, but still enjoyed the spectacular views of the Columbia River as we drove away from the reservation.

As I had a date to fly home from Helena and Bid was to be at the Bear Paw site the following weekend, we decided our next stop would be somewhere in Montana.