Book description
Part historical narrative, part travelogue through the wilds of the
West and part environmental polemic, 'Selling Your Father's Bones' is a
thrilling journey through the history and wilderness of the stunning
area of landscape that is Continental USA.
In the summer of 1877, around seven hundred members of the Nez Perce
Native American tribe set out on one of the most remarkable journeys in
the history of the American West, a 1,700-mile exodus through the
mountains, forests, badlands and prairies of modern-day Oregon, Idaho,
Wyoming and Montana. They had been forced from their homes by the great
wave of settlement that crashed over the West as the American nation was born.
Led by their charismatic chiefs, the Nez Perce used their unerring
knowledge of the landscapes they passed through to survive six battles
and many more skirmishes with the pursuing United States Army, as they
raced, with women, children and village elders in their care, towards
the safety of the Canadian border. But all Chief Joseph, the young
pastoral leader of the exodus, wanted was to return home - to his
beloved Wallowa valley, which his dying father had ordered him never to
abandon: 'Never sell the bones of your father and your mother.'
Now, Brian Schofield retraces the steps of that epic exodus, to tell
the full dramatic story of the Nez Perce's fight for survival - and to
examine the forces that drove them to take flight. The white settlement
of the West had been largely motivated by patriotic fervour and
religious zeal, a faith that the American continent had been laid out by
God to fuel the creation of a mighty empire. But as he travels through
the lands that the Nez Perce knew so well, Schofield reveals that the
great project of the Western Empire has gone badly awry, as the
mythology of the settlers opened the door to ecological vandalism,
unthinking corporations and negligent leadership, which have lest
scarred landscapes, battered communities and toxic environments. Brian
is only 32 years old and in 2003 he won the best British Travel Writer
covering North America. He's spent the last eight years writing for GQ,
FHM, 'Arena' and the 'Sunday Times'. He's currently employed as
assistant travel editor, culture and news review writer at the 'Sunday
Times'. This is his first book.
