Echoes of 1855 Treaty War ripple through Puget Sound tribes today
Editor’s note: The Puget Sound Treaty War (1855-1856) was fought between soldiers of the regular U.S. Army, Washington Territorial volunteers and tribes involved in the Medicine Creek Treaty.
The treaty, the first of several negotiated by Washington Territory Gov. Isaac Stevens, sought the relocation of local tribes to reservations in exchange for cash payments and the preservation of hunting and fishing rights. The treaty became a catalyst for the conflict.
The Treaty War remains central to Puget Sound history and is the subject of a panel discussion this Thursday (March 11) at 6 p.m. hosted by Metro Parks and Fort Nisqually.
For more information or to register, go online to fortnisqually.org
The native story of the first Treaty War is one of courage, strength and our ultimate success.
Every Nisqually, Puyallup and Muckleshoot citizen today owes a debt of gratitude, which can never be repaid, to our extended family of warriors whose courage and valor resulted in the return of nearly 25,000 acres of Indian land to Our People.
When foreigners came to my Ilalqo village, my Old Ones fed them and expected them to be on their way. They refused to leave.
They had no claim of title, as Muckleshoot land wasn’t ceded to the United States until 1859. Neither of our treaties provided a reservation for Muckleshoot. We had no choice but to stand our ground.
The war was won as a result of an alliance of extended family stretching in a great circle on both sides of the mountains. Most of our warriors survived the war, were allotted land and had big families with thousands of descendants today.
Nisqually, Puyallup and Muckleshoot came together again for the second Treaty War a century later — the war to protect our treaty fishing rights. The front-line warriors of the fish war were almost all direct descendants of the warriors of the first treaty war.
Washington Gov. Isaac Stevens capitulated at Fox Island on August 4, 1856 when he announced, “You shall have a large reservation at Nisqually, one large reservation on the Puyaloop. Those reservations shall give you ground enough for horses and to the Horse Indians, Muckleshook I will give land between White and Green Rivers and I will send a man with you to mark out the ground so that you may be satisfied.”
I know of no other instance in the history of the United States where Indians went to war to get their land back and succeeded. ʔu siʔab
Gilbert King George is an elder and warrior descendant in the Muckleshoot Tribe of Indians. His son, Warren King George, is a tribal historian and will be a panelist in Thursday’s Puget Sound Treaty War panel.