It is just south of Oregon Highway 351, from which an unpaved drive enters the property through a gateway in a stone wall.

The main feature is a circular earthen platform, lined with a low stone retaining wall.

[1] Old Chief Joseph was the mid-19th century leader of the Wallowa band of the Nez Perce tribe, one of several that had refused to sign treaties in the 1850s and 1860s that would have forced them onto reservation land in Idaho.

[1] In 1886, Old Chief Joseph's grave was desecrated by local property owners and his skull was removed as a souvenir.

The cemetery is a sacred place for the Nez Perce people,[4] and is held in trust for them by the United States government.