Summary: After the Civil War ended, General Oliver Otis Howard was put in charge of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, the first social welfare organization in this country. But after the efforts of Reconstruction collapsed, Howard got as far away from the politics of Washington, D.C. as he could — he came to Portland, Oregon. And it was in Oregon that he met Chief Joseph and led a four-month military campaign against the Nez Perce Tribe. Daniel Sharfstein has written a new book about Howard and Joseph. We spoke with him in April.
