Approaching the outside boundary of the reservation that had once belonged to the Nez Perce, Chief Joseph came to a stop. His people continued to surge forward, dragging their feet underneath them with their heads hunched over, unaware that their Chief had come to a halt. Chief Joseph turned around, taking in one last look at the only home he'd ever known and would surely never see again. For generations, the Nez Perce, had resided in the northeastern part of Oregon. The robust bond the Natives shared with their land corresponded to their faith. According to Barry M. Pritzker, "The lives of their people were inextricably linked to the land. In other words, selling the land would be tantamount to selling themselves and their heritage  (Pritzker). Even if new land was offered in replacement of the Nez Perce original territory, the loss of their land would cause a separation of their culture, leading them to their ultimate demise. The Nez Perce, along with many other tribes, lived in the New World for thousands of years with their own customs that were essential to their cultural identity. According to historian Howard Zinn, "Successors were not coming into an empty wilderness, but into a world which in some places was densely populated as Europe itself, where the culture was complex, where human relations were more egalitarian than in Europe, and where the relations among men, women, children, and nature were more beautifully worked out than perhaps any place in the world" (Zinn). Living on the land did not give those who recently settled the means to dominate over it, a concept that came so naturally to the Europeans. On the contrary, settlers should practice the Natives way of correlating with nature; sharing and living with the land, not taking advantage of what it has to offer. Native Americans treated nature as if it was a living, breathing matter that lived amongst them. "They had a much higher appreciation of land and what it offered" (Blakemore). It was more than just a piece of territory set aside to be used at the disposal of mankind. To the Nez Perce, it had become an important part of who they were. The Nez Perce, along with many other Native American tribes attached a religious component to the land, making it that much harder to give up. The Indians believed that a greater power looked upon them and judged them on their daily actions, making sure they coincided with the world around them. To them "everything in the natural world was interrelated and is to be shared in the same life" (Sherrer). They were not superior to the other living organisms that coexisted in the environment merely because they were humans. European explorers had this idea that humans, particularly white males, were superior to all species in nature. Thus everything else in the world, that was not human, fell beneath them. Scottish-born American naturalist, John Muir wrote "The world, we are told, was made especially for man (Muir). If Humans were in fact above all living and nonliving things in nature, nothing on Earth could potentially harm mankind. Men are "painfully astonished whenever they find anything, living or dead, in all God's universe, which they cannot eat or render in some way what they call useful to themselves" (Muir). Therefore if something in nature was not useful to mankind, they would question its purpose. However, this was not the case for tribes, such as the Nez Percé. They preferred to live together as one with nature; sharing and coexisting amongst one another in the way The Great Spirit had intended man to do so. This only made the bond between the tribes and nature stronger. Therefore when they had to abandon their land, it was as if they were losing a part of themselves. The Native American diaspora of the 1850's involved the removal of Indians from their homeland. The Nez Perce were forced to move off to a reservation set aside for them. Due to the Natives customs and beliefs, many white men brushed them off as un-intellectual human beings. "They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance" (Zinn). European Explorers used the Natives lack of weaponry and numbers to their advantage. "With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want" (Zinn). Hungry for land, settlers abused their power and manipulated the Indians i