Puget Sound War
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The Puget Sound War was an armed conflict that took place in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington in 1855–56, between the United States Army, local militias and members of the Native American tribes of the Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Klikitat. Although limited in its magnitude, territorial impact and losses in terms of lives, the conflict is often remembered in connection to the Battle of Seattle (1856) and to the execution of a central figure of the war, Nisqually Chief Leschi.
[edit] An Overview
The Puget Sound War began over land rights and ended in a cloud of controversy surrounding the hanging of Leschi, the great Nisqually leader.
The catalyst of the war was the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854.1 Negotiated by Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens, the treaty preserved Indian fishing rights, but took away prime Nisqually farm land.2 Leschi, chosen to negotiate the treaty with Stevens, was outraged and chose to fight rather than give up his land.3 The fighting commenced in October of 1855, when “Eaton’s Rangers,” a citizen militia under Captain Charles Eaton, were involved in a clash with Nisqually tribesmen. Two militiamen, Joseph Miller and A.B. Moses, were killed. Upon hearing the news, Governor Stevens immediately dispatched a company to locate Leschi and “escort” him back to Olympia.
The war itself consisted of a series of short skirmishes with relatively few deaths on either side. Major battles occurred in present-day Tacoma, Seattle, and even as far east as Walla Walla.
Leschi was captured in November of 1856 and was forced to stand trial for the murder of A.B. Moses. His first trial resulted in a hung jury because of the question of the legitimacy of murder during wartime.4 Leschi was tried again in 1857. Despite vague witness accounts and issues over whether Leschi was actually at the scene of the crime, he was found guilty of murder. Leschi was hanged on February 19, 1858. On December 11, 2004, a Pierce County, Washington Historical Court ruled “as a legal combatant of the Indian War… Leschi should not have been held accountable under law for the death of an enemy soldier,” thereby exonerating him of any wrongdoing.5 The ruling, while having no legal significance, provided closure for the Nisqually people, who fought for years to clear the name of their legendary chief.6 Today, a Seattle neighborhood and a Puyallup school bear Leschi’s name.
[edit] Footnotes
- 1 Washington History Online, “Leschi: Justice in our Time,” <http://washingtonhistoryonline.org/leschi/index.htm> [23 January 2007].
- 2 Janice E. Schuetz, Episodes in Rhetoric of Government-Indian Relations, (Westport: Praeger, 2002), 1-24.
- 3 J.A. Eckrom, Remembered Drums: A History of the Puget Sound Indian War, (Walla Walla: Pioneer Press, 1989), 1-30.
- 4 Schuetz, Episodes, 15.
- 5 Seattle, Washington, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11 December 2004.
- 6 Seattle Intelligencer, Op. Cit.
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