South Puget Sound Indians-
What happened in the Indian War?

The Nisqually people were upset by the reservation given to them. It was not on their river, and it was rocky and forested. There was no way for them to graze their horses or fish for salmon. The Puyallup people were also disappointed with their new land, and stood together with the Nisquallies. Chief Leschi was determined to correct the wrongs done by the Medicine Creek Treaty. He went to Olympia to talk with Secretary of State Charles Mason, urging him to change the location of the reservations. Mason, however, already had reports from settlers that Chief Leschi was causing "trouble," talking with Indians and urging them not to settle for the poor reservation. He decided to have Leschi and his brother Quiemuth taken into protective custody. When the brothers heard this news, they packed their things and fled across toward the mountain. A group of settlers in the volunteer army decided to follow them.

While the settlers were searching for Chief Leschi and Quiemuth, James McAllister and Michael Connell were killed by an Indian guard. Shortly after their deaths, there was an Indian attack on some white families living at White River. These attacks were blamed on Chief Leschi, although he and other Indians swore he was not responsible. Chief Leschi did not want to fight with the settlers. He wanted only to resolve the problems created by the Treaty. The Indian War had begun, and Leschi became a prominent war chief of the Puyallup and Nisqually tribes. The war was fought in the foothills between the White River and the Green River.

Only a small portion of the Indians was actually involved in the war, although many of them, suffered terribly during the conflict. The Indians who were not fighting were rounded up and sent to live on reservations where they were monitored by the U.S. army. These temporary reservations were harsh and terrible places to live, and it could be dangerous for them to leave. The soldiers, many of them volunteers, were so intent on fighting that the sight of any Indian at all inflamed them. They sometimes attacked peaceful Indians, even women and children. They ransacked their homes, and killed or harassed Indian workers at Fort Nisqually.

Because it took so long for news to travel in those days, it was hard for the settlers to know exactly what was happening. Most of the fighting took place further north, in what is today Pierce County. Although there was not much danger in Tumwater itself, the settlers were in a state of panic. Some of them left their homes to live in blockhouses or forts, for protection. Several families lived in a blockhouse together, some for almost a year. There was a blockhouse on Bush Prairie, one at Tumwater Falls, one in Centralia, one near Rochester that housed 200 people, and one at Sylvester Park in Olympia. The Centralia blockhouse still stands, and there is a historic marker at the site in Rochester.

After more than ten months of fighting, the Indian warriors were outnumbered, tired, and hungry. Leschi went to an Indian agent to ask for peace. Finally, Governor Stevens called a Peace Council on Fox Island on August 4^th and 5^th, 1856. In this meeting he promised to call an end to fighting and create new, better reservations for the tribal peoples. However, he still considered Leschi and Quiemuth to be enemies. The government and the settlers wanted someone to blame for the war, and Leschi was it. Leschi was captured and taken into custody at Fort Steilacoom. When he heard of his brother’s capture, Quiemuth turned himself in. While he was being taken to the jail at Fort Steilacoom, Quiemuth and his jailors stopped to spend the night in Olympia. Quiemuth slept on the floor of the governor’s office, which was left unlocked. Early in the morning of November 18, 1856, someone snuck into the office and brutally murdered him. No one was ever proven guilty of the crime.

Leschi was tried for the murders of one soldier, although many people did not feel that Chief Leschi should be held responsible for the crimes of the war. The first jury at Steilacoom could not come to a decision, and a second trial was held in Olympia. This time he was found guilty. The men at Fort Steilacoom, a U.S. military fort, felt so strongly that Leschi should not be hanged that they would not allow the gallows to be built on military property. A gallows had to be built near Steilacoom Lake, where Leschi was hanged on February 19, 1858, to the sorrow of his people and many others who respected him as a great leader, warrior, and orator.

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