End of the Indian Wars, Part 3

 

 

The following article, The End of the Indian Wars, was published in The Cashmere Valley Record, Vol. 30, No. 8, on 20 February 1936. I share it with you because it was of interest to Washington history buffs. Part 3:

 Princess Angeline, Chief Seattle's daughter.

As to just how the warning reached the white people we do not know. You may have noticed when visiting Lakeview cemetery, Volunteer Park, in Seattle, that the grave of Princess Angeline is in a prominent location. Tradition has it that this girl, who was Seattle’s daughter, was the one that warned the whites of the impending attack. True or not, it is fitting, in view of other valued services to the white settlers on the part of Seattle and his family, that she should thus rest near the Carmack, Libby and Denny plots.

Only one more battle should be mentioned in this campaign. A detachment of soldiers was opening up a road from Puyallup to Muckilshoot Prairie. A group of Indians attacked them but were repulsed, the soldiers suffering only slight losses.

With only a few more skirmishes, the war was given up by the Indians. The whites had held Seattle, had built blockhouses on Whidbey Island, on the White River and at a dozen other places throughout the territory. The Indian cause was lost.

We can close this description of what, had we lived then, would have been a vivid and exciting time, but to read it is only one horror story after another by showing what grew out of the Indian Wars. The most important result was the ratification of Stevens’ Indian treaties which opened the territory to settlement. The department of Oregon Military Affairs was created which would give the settlers greater protection in the future.

Perhaps the greatest interest to us from this period is the series of names that are remembered in Washington geography: Wright, Seattle, Steptoe, Leschi and Klickitat. After all, that is one of the interesting things in any period of the past.