allalhotsoot was the son of a Salish-speaking Flathead woman and Twisted Hair, the Nez Perce who welcomed and befriended Lewis and Clark in the fall of 1805. His father's positive experiences with the whites greatly influenced the boy. He firmly believed that the best prospect for the future of the Nez Perce was through friendship with the whites.

Hallalhotsoot's first contact with the whites occurred at the famous Pierre's Hole rendezvous of 1832 where, allied with a group of trappers in a skirmish against the Blackfeet, he received a gunshot wound. This injury never healed properly and caused him great pain throughout his life.

"Lawyer," the nickname bestowed on Hallalhotsoot, warrior of the Nez Perce, originated with the mountain men of the early 1830s, who admired his argumentative ability and overall shrewdness. He was known as "the talker," and his eloquence earned him influence with the Indians and high regard from the white people.

Governor Isaac Stevens referred to Lawyer as "an Indian Solon" in his writings (referring to a revered lawgiver of antiquity). Judge George C. Hough, present at the Lapwai Council of 1867, called him "a consummate diplomat. "

The Nez Perce and Christianity
In 1831, six Nez Perce embarked on a journey through the Rocky Mountains to ask for teachers of Christianity, the white man's religion, to come to the tribes. Two of the party turned back at the mountains, but four proceeded on to St. Louis. The story was reprinted widely in American newspapers, and set off a frenetic missionary movement to the West, one that changed the course not only of the Nez Perce, but of the entire Northwest.

The expedition of Nez Perce may have been inspired by the teachings of Spokan Garry, who had been educated by George Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company, and who adhered to the teachings of Christianity. Lawyer was similarly inspired by Garry's teachings, so when the missionaries—advance agents of white civilization—appeared on the scene, he followed the white man's ways and religion.

One of these missionaries, Marcus Whitman, hired Lawyer to live at his mission and teach him the Salish and Nez Perce languages, providing food and clothing to his family in return. It was here that Lawyer, once a buffalo hunter, began to accept the adaptation to the material culture and religion of the white man. Lawyer emerged as a leader of the Nez Perce following the Whitman tragedy on November 29, 1847, traveling to Salem to meet Joseph Lane, Governor of the Oregon Territory, and to request aid in the capture of the Whitmans' murderers.

The Walla Walla Treaty Council of 1855
Lawyer's friendly predisposition toward white culture led to his being selected by Isaac Stevens as the designated leader of the Nez Perce at the Walla Walla Treaty Council of 1855. It is a telling point that Lawyer was one of the first chiefs to be sketched by the artist Gustav Sohon at that council, an indication of the high stature he possessed among non-Native observers. He is pictured wearing a silk top hat, decorated with ostrich plumes held in place by colored bands, headgear that no doubt reinforced Lawyer's view of himself as a leader. Sohon's inscription describes Lawyer as Head Chief of the Nez Perce Tribe, but some observers believe he only became the principal spokesman after being selected by Isaac Stevens..

After the Council
Some historians have painted Lawyer as a wise and far-seeing leader who did his best to protect the Nez Perce from white encroachments. Others have characterized him as a political opportunist who shortchanged his own people on some occasions to secure favor, to gain influence, or to profit from his contact with the white men.

In the years that followed the Walla Walla Council, Lawyer was widely ridiculed by anti-treaty factions within the Nez Perce tribe after the terms of the treaties failed to be ratified. When the promised payments began arriving in the early 1860s, cynical observers would note that they seemed timed to coincided with the government's desire for more land cessions from the Nez Perce. The second treaty, signed by Lawyer in 1863, reduced the area of the tribe's reservation by 90 percent, transferring away the homelands of many Nez Perce bands. This was done without their consent.

Lawyer defended his actions by arguing that resisting white encroachment was useless and that the wise and practical course was to simply adapt to changing circumstances.

Despite his trust that Stevens and the American government had good intentions, Lawyer experienced great disappointment when promises made in the treaties were not honored. In a speech delivered in the gold—rush boomtown of Lewiston, Idaho, in 1864, Lawyer spoke eloquently to the failure of the government to live up to its promises:

If [Stevens] had told us that the reservation was to be flooded with white settlers, or that the saw mill was to be used for the exclusive benefit of the Whites, we would never have consented to the treaty. That flour mill and saw mill were pledged to me and my people. All the stipulations of that treaty were pledged to us for our benefit. Nine years have passed and those stipulations are unfulfilled. [W]e have no church as promised; no schoolhouse as promised; no doctor as promised; no gunsmith as promised; no blacksmith as promised. Only one year more and ten years will have passed and nothing done. ... I stand here, as it were, naked so far as these promises are fulfilled. We fought with Major Haller, with Colonel Wright, and Colonel Steptoe, and with the latter our blood was mingled with yours, and when defeated, had not Timothy and Levi conducted them out of the country, they would have all been killed. Upon the defeat of Colonel Steptoe [the Americans] called upon us for help. I furnished them warriors and their subsistence. I have spoken you my whole heart. [Drury, 229-230]

In total frustration over the refusal of the American government to honor the terms of the treaties, Lawyer, along with Timothy, Jason, and Utsinmaliqan, traveled in 1868 to Washington, DC. As a result of their meeting with the Indian Bureau officials there, land was exchanged for a military fort, and in 1869 the government began to honor the Nez Perce treaties.

Lawyer devoted his life to making peace with the white population and adhering to the terms of the treaties he signed. Nevertheless, in 1879—after holding his post for twenty—five years—he voluntarily stepped down from the leadership of the Nez Perce. His descendants tell the tale of his death on January 3, 1876, in this manner:

It was Lawyer's custom to fly his American flag from a pole in front of his lodge or house. On the day that he died, knowing that his end was near, he instructed some member to gradually pull down the flag. The flag would be lowered a bit and then Lawyer, after a time would say: "Pull it down a little more." So the flag was lowered a little more. This was repeated several times and when the flag touched the ground, Lawyer died.

Lawyer's death preceded the famous Nez Perce war of 1877. Those bands directly under his influence did not participate in that action. Alvin Josephy wrote that "[d]espite the accommodating role he had played, the Americans had repaid him with only small and niggling favors, and in his later years he had lived close to want. ... He had presided over the destruction of the cultural pride, dignity, and heritage of large numbers of Nez Perce."

Sources:
Drury, Clifford M. Chief Lawyer of the Nez Perce Indians. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1979.

Josephy, Alvin M. The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.

Nicandri, David L. Northwest Chiefs: Gustav Sohon's View of the 1855 Stevens Treaty Councils. Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society, 1986.