Chief Leschi of the Nisqually Indians reputedly staged an ambush between Olympia and Tenino on what later became known as Chein Hill.

Tribes play key role in county's history

1974 Boldt decision brought resources to area's Indians

LORRINE THOMPSON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Saturday, January 12, 2002

When English explorer Peter Puget paddled into Eld Inlet in June 1792 with a party of men, what he found surprised him.

At first, the natives they encountered appeared somewhat fierce, painted in red and black streaks, wearing thick animal skins that appeared to be some kind of war garments, Puget wrote in his journal.

But as soon as the English men began to communicate and suggest trading, the natives openly and happily obliged, so much so that Puget called their appearance a "farce of savageness."

Puget wrote: "The conduct of these people impressed me with a high idea of their honesty. ... In our way down, we were received by the inhabitants with all the friendship and hospitality we could have expected."

Puget's account is the first written record of white men encountering South Sound natives, and little changed by the time white settlers began arriving in the area in the 1840s and 1850s.

The native residents of South Sound -- the Nisqually, Chehalis and Squaxin tribes -- played an integral part in helping white settlers survive their first years in the wilderness, helping them locate game and fish when some settlers were nearly starving.

Within a short number of years, the relationship between natives and the increasing number of settlers grew contentious, resulting in a short war.

Now after decades of economic and social depression, the tribes are actively enrolling members, developing economic and natural resources, and have forged new relationships with state and local government agencies as they again play a vital role in the county's development.

Both the Chehalis and Squaxin tribes have a small portion of their reservations or traditional lands inside present-day Thurston County, while the Nisqually reservation is almost completely within the county.

Nisqually tribe

Nisqually history is closely tied with Thurston County history.

The Nisqually called themselves the "Squalli-Absch" -- which means "people of the grass country" in the Salish language -- at the time settlers arrived in the 1840s. Their ancient culture, deeply connected to the Nisqually river and "Tacobet" (Mount Rainier), had existed for thousands of years before whites arrived.

They gathered berries, roots, grasses and bark in the prairies between Tacobet and "whulge" (Puget Sound), and they hunted, gathered shellfish and raised horses.

Settlers found them to be peaceful people -- the Nisqually rarely had skirmishes with neighboring tribes -- so much so that when other Western Washington tribes argued for a war against the growing number of white settlers, South Sound tribal members like Sno-ho-dum-set opposed the plan.

But war nonetheless arrived in the mid-1850s.

Although it was a small war by national standards, the Puget Sound Indian War of 1855-56 would have great bearing on the future of tribes in the next century.

In his writings, pioneer Ezra Meeker blames the war on Washington territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens, who created the Medicine Creek Treaty in 1854, calling on Western Washington tribes to sign it.

While white settlers were being given 160 acres of land per person, Stevens' treaty gave Indians about four acres per person. He also moved the Nisqually land to a small, scrubby area well away from their beloved river -- not far from the current county waste and recovery center.

Numerous tribal representatives gathered at Medicine Creek (now McAllister Creek, near the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge), but Nisqually chiefs Quiemuth and his brother, Leschi, refused to sign the stingy treaty.

Stevens sent soldiers to arrest the men, and an uprising that included Puyallup and other tribes followed.

Leschi emerged as a particularly strong leader, well spoken and well respected by white settlers as well as Indians, a powerful orator who became known throughout the Northwest. He was named war chief, and advocated against attacking civilians.

Although they fought well, Western Washington Indians were far outnumbered and had few ways to regenerate supplies. They gave up the battle in 1856.

Quiemuth was apprehended by white soldiers and stabbed to death while in custody. No one was ever arrested in his death.

Leschi was sentenced to hang amid massive agitation in the Northwest. More than 1,000 Indians from throughout the region gathered on Squaxin land to ask that Leschi be spared. About 800 white settlers signed a petition demanding that he be executed.

Leschi was hanged on Feb. 28, 1858, near present-day Lakewood.

The war was not a complete loss, however. Federal authorities believed Stevens had bungled the situation, removed him as Indian agent for the area and demanded that the Indians be given better reservation lands.

The Nisqually reservation was more than tripled in size and moved to its present location on the river.

Rebirth

Despite its stinginess, the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854 would end up helping Western Washington tribes more than a century later.

In the many decades following Leschi's hanging, life got hard for South Sound Indians. Confined to their reservations, they lacked the resources to provide for themselves. This became particularly true for the Nisqually after the federal government condemned almost 60 percent of their reservation to create Fort Lewis.

Tribal members began to scatter and look for life elsewhere, leaving behind their tribes and culture.

In the early 1900s, up to the 1930s and 1940s, tribes were forbidden by the government from running their own schools, and children were hauled off to boarding schools, where they were also forbidden to speak their native languages.

By the 1940s and 1950s, only a handful of hearty families subsisted on the Nisqually reservation, which had no electricity or running water.

Things began to change in the 1960s and 1970s, when tribal members started to demand the fishing rights that had been granted to them in the 1854 Medicine Creek Treaty.

The treaty asserted that Indians could continue to hunt and fish in their traditional tribal areas, regardless if the areas were on reservation lands. However, modern Indians were being arrested for fishing off their reservations.

After a series of "fish-ins" that put the Nisqually and Puyallup in the national news, the federal government filed suit against the state of Washington for violating its own treaty.

In 1974, federal Judge George Boldt ruled that Washington tribes were entitled to half the salmon and steelhead from their traditional fishing grounds.

The decision brought resources, revenues and legal rights to the tribes for the first time in more than a century.

Since then, the tribes have been slowly rebuilding.

The Nisqually built a tribal headquarters in the 1980s, and have since created a natural resources department, a youth center, a health clinic, library, classrooms, jail, the Red Wind Casino, an intergenerational center for elders and youth.

They have reasserted their rights to gather bark and berries in the foothills of Mount Rainier, and some efforts are underway to reestablish the Coastal Salish language spoken historically by the tribe.

They have also slowly increased their enrollment, reaching out to find Nisqually tribal members who left the reservation.

Today the tribe works closely with state and local governments on issues of water quality and natural resource protection.

They are happy now, say tribal leaders like Richard Wells and Georgiana Kautz, to look forward rather than back.

South Sound tribes

- The Nisqually Indians are a river people whose reservation is located along the Nisqually River in north Thurston County. They are of Coastal Salish heritage, and now have 507 enrolled members. The tribe was instrumental in securing better lands and fishing rights for Western Washington tribes in both the Puget Sound Indian War of 1855-56 and during the fish-ins of the 1960s and 70s.

- The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation have about 800 acres within Thurston County, with the rest of the reservation located in Lewis County, near the Black and Chehalis rivers. Tribal members are of Salish heritage. The tribe has 627 enrolled members.

- The Squaxin tribe is a southern coastal Salish tribe that lived on the fish, shellfish, animals and plants of south Puget Sound. The tribe's traditional hunting and fishing grounds include areas of what is now Thurston County. The tribe has 703 enrolled members.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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