Leschi (1808-1858) and his half-brother, Quiemuth (ca. 1798-1856), were respected members of the Nisqually Indian Tribe of South Puget Sound. In 1854 they were appointed by Washington Territory's first governor, Isaac Stevens (1818-1862), to represent their tribe during treaty talks near Medicine Creek in north Thurston County. Outraged by the inadequate reservation imposed by the treaty, Leschi took up arms and became the leading chief of a fighting force comprising members of several Puget Sound tribes. Outgunned and outmanned, in the spring of 1856 Leschi and his remaining followers retreated to the Kittitas Valley. But he had become the primary focus for the vengeance of Governor Stevens, and upon returning west in late 1856 Leschi was betrayed, arrested, and charged with the murder of a volunteer militiaman. After two trials and a convoluted and error-filled legal odyssey, Leschi was convicted, and on February 19, 1858, was hanged at Steilacoom. Still, the Puget Sound War had not been fought in vain; in January 1857 larger and more appropriate reservations were approved for the region's tribes. Nearly 150 years later, in 2004, a specially formed historical court exonerated Chief Leschi of the crime for which he was executed.

Leschi's People

The Nisqually Indians' homeland was the watershed of the Nisqually River, ranging from the saltwater shores of South Puget Sound east to Mount Rainier. The tribe had prospered there for thousands of years, but decimated by diseases brought by outsiders, it numbered no more than a few hundred by the mid-1850s. Those living nearest Puget Sound relied on fishing for their primary livelihood, while those in the upriver foothills and prairies were more reliant on hunting, and later, farming. Both groups supplemented their diets by gathering camas roots, berries, and other edibles.

The tribe spoke Lushootseed and lived in a dozen or so villages along the banks of the Nisqually and its tributaries. Organized in extended-family groups, they resided in large cedar-plank dwellings during winter and in temporary shelters while hunting, fishing, or gathering during the warmer months. Each village had a headman, but there was often no broader governance; the last tribal-wide Nisqually chief was Laghlet, who died in 1849 and was not replaced.

The Nisquallies were polygynous, with men often having two or more wives. Marriage between Nisquallies and the nearby Puyallups, and from east of the Cascades the Yakama and Klickitat, was not uncommon. Neither notably aggressive nor particularly adept at combat, they would flee when they could, and fight only when they must. Their most daunting enemies were fierce Haida raiders who came by sea from British Columbia to slaughter and enslave. As did most Northwest tribes, the Nisquallies also kept slaves, some captured during battle, most purchased from other tribes.

A World Changes

By the first decade of the nineteenth century, a few non-Native trappers and traders, mostly French Canadians, were passing through Nisqually territory without incident. In 1833 the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) built a trading station, Fort Nisqually, near today's DuPont, the first permanent European settlement on Puget Sound. In 1838 HBC established the Puget Sound Agricultural Company on a 180-square-mile swath of Nisqually land, pasturing livestock and planting wheat where the tribe had long gathered food. Nonetheless, the company maintained amicable relations with the Nisquallies, employing some, trading with many, sanctioning marriage between white men and Native women, and strictly prohibiting the sale of liquor to tribal people.

The 1846 Oregon Treaty set the boundary between America and British Canada at the 49th parallel, but allowed HBC to continue its operations south of that line for an indeterminate time. In 1850 the Donation Land Claim Act offered free land in Oregon Territory, which brought a flood of new American settlers to the Northwest. Most showed little deference to the ownership claims of HBC, much less those of the region's tribes. The company's operations slowly withered, but Fort Nisqually would remain an HBC operation until 1869. The Native peoples would have no such grace period; in 1851 their fate was sealed when Congress created the reservation system with passage of the Indian Appropriations Act.

Son, Brother, Husband, and Father

Native American oral traditions preserve cultural beliefs. Cecilia Svinth Carpenter, a historian and enrolled member of the Nisqually Tribe, opens her biography of Leschi citing such a belief:

"Leschi was born to be a leader. His people believe that the star that rose over the Nisqually Plains on the day of his birth in 1808 predestined him to become someday a war chief on behalf of his people" (Carpenter, Leschi ..., 7).

Leschi's birth name is unrecorded. By tradition, Nisqually boys could pick their own names at an appropriate age. There is only guesswork about why Leschi chose the name he did -- it is not translatable, and he may simply have liked the sound of it.

It is generally accepted that Leschi was born in early January 1808 at Bashelabesh, a prairie village near where the Mashel River joins the Nisqually River, about 25 miles upstream from its mouth. His father, Ya-nat-co (ca. 1775-1856), was prosperous, his wealth represented by a large herd of horses.

Leschi's mother, Conuzita (ca. 1790-1874), is often identified as a member of the Klickitat Tribe, but most sources say that We-ow-wicht, a Yakama chief, was her father. Thus the Yakama tribe's war chief, Owhi (1800-1858), was her brother, and Kamiakin (ca. 1800-1877), who succeeded We-ow-wicht as the Yakama chief, was her nephew. They and Owhi's son, Qualchan (d. 1858) would be allied with Leschi in the coming war. Only Kamiakin would survive it.

Leschi's half-brother, Quiemuth (ca. 1798-1856), was about 10 years older. Growing up, they were inseparable. Leschi also had a sister, whose name is unrecorded. She was married to Stahi (1820-?), a close friend and wartime comrade of Leschi and Quiemuth.

Leschi had three wives, but the dates of the unions are not recorded and several names are given. His first wife was Tyee Mary (or Sara) Leschi (1799-1872), and the union was childless. He later took a second wife, Mary (or Annie) Leschi Stillman (1815-1915), a member of the Squaxin Tribe who married a white man after Leschi's death. She and Leschi had two daughters, Kalakala "Jennie" Leschi (1836-1880) and Sarah Leschi (1842-1897). Kalakala and a white settler, Charles H. Eaton (1818-1876), lived together for many years in a relationship that produced five children. They may have married, although no record exists.  

Leschi's third wife, Mary, was born in 1839 and must have been in her early to mid-teens at the time of the marriage. She died in 1924, outliving her husband by nearly seven decades.

Leschi in Peacetime

Little is known of Leschi's life up until the mid-1850s. When young, he and Quiemuth enjoyed a degree of respect based on the wealth and reputation of their father. As adults they lived with their families near Muck Creek, northwest of their birthplace. They farmed, hunted, and raised a growing herd of horses, which brought them prosperity and respect on their own merit. Leschi's reputation for sagacity was such that he was often asked to arbitrate tribal disputes. However, neither he nor Quiemuth were anointed or recognized as chiefs until the titles were thrust upon in them in 1854 by Isaac Stevens, Washington Territory's first governor and superintendant of Indian affairs, soon to be the Nemesis of both.

There are no known depictions of Leschi created during his lifetime. Almost every eyewitness account agrees that he was unusually light-complexioned for a Coast Salish person, but that is about the only description that seems widely accepted. Estimates of his height vary from 5 feet, 7 inches to 6 feet, tall for a coastal Native and likely a reflection of his mother's Yakama and Klickitat heritage. Nisqually historian Cecelia Carpenter has noted that "It was then a custom of the Nisqually people to arrange marriages outside of tribal lineage so as to minimize the shortness of stature and the broadness of shoulders typical of the canoe Indians of Puget Sound" (Carpenter, Leschi ..., 7).

Like most Coast Salish tribes, Nisqually mothers commonly strapped boards to their infants' heads to shape their skulls, creating a steeply sloped forehead and flattened parietal and occipital bones in the rear. Sources cannot even agree on whether Leschi had been so treated. Pioneer and amateur historian Ezra Meeker (1830-1928) quoted Charles Grainger, Leschi's executioner, as saying "his head was not flattened much, if any at all. He had a very high forehead for an Indian" (Meeker, 454). In the same volume, Meeker quotes Judge James Wickersham -- "He was a true flathead, and had large brain room" (Meeker, 211). The first observation seems most likely, as the tribes from whence his mother came did not follow the custom.

Even those white settlers not disposed to respect Leschi noted his unmistakable presence, accentuated by a penetrating gaze, erect bearing, and a habit of keeping his own counsel. In Lushootseed he was said to be a captivating and persuasive orator. He was conversant in Sahaptin, the language of his mother's people, but by most accounts had almost no working knowledge of English and only partial familiarity with Chinook Jargon, a trading language of a few hundred words, a mash-up of English, French, and a number of indigenous dialects.

As for Leschi's nature and character, he was regarded by most HBC personnel as honest and helpful, if somewhat taciturn. In the mid-1840s he had guided at least one white settler, James McAllister (1812-1855), to fertile land for homesteading, and in return McAllister taught Leschi and Quiemuth how to cultivate potatoes and wheat. In 1853 Leschi loaned pack horses from his herd to American volunteers building a military road. Owen Bush (1832-1907), who with his parents had settled at Bush Prairie in the mid-1840s, spoke Salish and knew Leschi well. He is quoted by Ezra Meeker as saying:

"Leschi was as good a friend as we ever had. He was dignified in his intercourse and proud of his country, and, I may say, proud of himself ... The Indians could have killed us all any time during the eight years we were here before Governor Stevens came, but instead of molesting us in any way they helped us all they could" (Meeker, 207-208).

But Leschi remained an enigma to many. HBC's chief trader at Fort Nisqually, William Tolmie (1812-1886), who had known Leschi since 1833 and later fought his execution, described him as "a shrewd Indian, hard to fathom and find out" (Olson, p. 29).

Governor Isaac Stevens

If Leschi was unusually tall for his kind, Isaac Stevens was notably short for his, standing only about three inches over five feet. He had a large head, a long torso, and short, bandied legs, the probable result of a congenital pituitary insufficiency.

Stevens's diminutive size was more than compensated for by his intelligence, demonstrated bravery, and unbridled ambition. He placed first in his graduating class at West Point in 1839, served in the prestigious Corps of Engineers, and fought in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1847. He later worked for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, which was surveying and mapping the country's largely unexplored western regions.

When the U.S. Congress created Washington Territory out of the northern portion of Oregon Territory in March 1853, President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) appointed Stevens, a fellow Democrat, as its first governor. After establishing a government and a patronage system, his next priority was to wrest from the indigenous people their ancestral lands, and he requested and was given the additional role of superintendant of Indian affairs. Indicative of his energy and driving ambition, during his trek west to take up his offices, Stevens led a successful survey for the Northern Pacific Railway Exploration, a federally funded effort to determine the best route for a transcontinental railroad.

Stevens finally arrived in Olympia, the territorial capital, on November 25, 1853. Months earlier, George W. Manypenny (1808-1892), commissioner of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, had directed him to consolidate the approximately 50 identifiable tribes in Washington Territory into as few kindred groups as possible and give each group the smallest possible reservation. Manypenny thought six or eight reservations should be sufficient, and there is evidence that Stevens did not fully agree with these directives. But there was no doubt he would carry them out, and a month after his arrival he reported to Manypenny that the Indians were "useful in many ways" and, "if confined on reservations under the direction of efficient agents ... little objection, if any, would be made by the whites" (Kluger, 49-50). Months later, with almost complete disregard for any objections the Native people might have, Stevens set about his task.

Preparations

When Stevens decided to tackle the treaties in the fall of 1854, it made sense to deal first with the Native people nearest Olympia, identified as the "Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Squawskin, S'Homamish, Stehchass, T'Peeksin, Squi-aitl, and Sa-heh-wamish tribes and bands" (Medicine Creek Treaty, Preamble). Stevens appointed a three-man team to lay the groundwork, with Michael T. Simmons (1814-1867) serving as special Indian agent. Simmons had come west with Owen Bush's family and established the first American settlement north of the Columbia River, which he named New Market (today's Tumwater). Burly, blunt, and functionally illiterate, he seemed an odd choice for the task Stevens gave him, but he knew the local Native people and had a reputation for fair, if not overly warm, dealings with them.

Simmons was assigned to visit the various tribes, recommend to Stevens which could be consolidated for treaty and reservation purposes, and identify or appoint chiefs to represent them. For the Nisquallies, who had had no overall leader since the death of Laghlet, he made Quiemuth chief and the younger Leschi subchief. Simmons also counted the members of the several tribes and bands that would be affected by the treaty, coming up with a suspiciously exact 638, a number that presumably was to influence the size of the reservations. The true count, later determined, was more than 2,000.

Perhaps the most important member of the team, and the most sympathetic to the Natives' predicament, was George Gibbs (1815-1873), a well-traveled ethnologist and Harvard-trained attorney who was to draft the treaty's text, the boilerplate of which would be used in future treaties as well. The third member was Bejanmin Franklin "Frank" Shaw (1829-1908), who had disdain for the Indians and little regard for their interests, but was fluent in Lushootseed and Chinook Jargon.

Stevens and his crew wasted no time. The tribes were directed to gather for a treaty conference on Christmas Day, 1854, at Medicine Creek, known to the Nisquallies as She-Nah-Nam. By December 24 approximately 700 Natives -- including 62 who Simmons had identified as leaders -- had set up camp across the creek from Stevens and his small cadre.

The Medicine Creek Treaty

The details of the treaty meetings have been thoroughly dissected in dozens of books, articles, and scholarly papers. It suffices here to say that what occurred at Medicine Creek was not negotiation, but diktat. The treaty was written before the parties met; only the reservations' precise boundaries were not detailed, and that only because Stevens's haste had left no time for proper inspections and surveys. An incomplete understanding of the treaty's terms by the Native people was guaranteed when, at the governor's insistence, it was read only in Chinook Jargon, far too limited a tongue to convey the nuanced meanings of the document's legalese.

Stevens had settled on three reservations: Squaxin Island for the tribe of that name, one for the Puyallups and one for the Nisquallies, each sketchily described, 1,280-acre (two-square-mile) sites atop bluffs facing Puget Sound. The tribes collectively were allotted approximately six square miles; in return, they were required to surrender approximately 3,960 square miles of the land of their ancestors.

The treaty also ignored the fact that the Nisquallies comprised two groups, the "fish people" who lived near the saltwater, and the upriver "horse people," who were primarily herders, hunters, farmers, and gatherers (Kluger, 78). The reservation's adjacency to Puget Sound and the promise that the Nisquallies would retain "the right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations" (Medicine Creek Treaty, Article 3) made it marginally acceptable to the fish people. But it was on heavily forested and rocky ground, unsuitable for farming or stock raising, and with no frontage on the Nisqually River, around which the tribe's life had revolved for many centuries. Moving there would spell death for the lifestyle and horse-based prosperity of many upriver Nisquallies, most consequentially Leschi and Quiemuth.

Leschi's Lament

Leschi's behavior at the treaty conference was not at all "hard to fathom," to borrow Tolmie's characterization. Most sources agree that after the first reading of the treaty on December 25, Leschi angrily tore up the certificate appointing him subchief and stamped it into the mud. Some accounts say he then left the conference in a rage. Others indicate that he was still there on December 26, but refused to put his mark on the treaty. An "X" appeared next to Leschi's name; whether he put it there has never been determined. The weight of evidence supports Leschi's claim that he did not, and his angry response to the treaty is not in serious dispute. In January 1858, Tolmie wrote to Washington Territory's new governor, Fayette McMullen (1805-1880), "Leschi, I have learned from both whites and Indians, protested vehemently there [Medicine Creek] against the reservation originally appointed for the Nisquallies" (Kluger, 95).

After Medicine Creek, Leschi, who had lived in peace among whites for 21 years, became the primary focus of the fury and vengefulness of Isaac Stevens. Perhaps it was simply that Leschi was the first Native American to stand against him face-to-face to condemn the inaugural treaty's gross inequities. Whatever the causes, in the words of author Richard Kluger, from the beginning to long after the end of the Puget Sound Treaty War, Stevens would wage a "vendetta aimed at destroying the last chief of an obscure American tribe -- a man who was, so far as modern scrutiny can tell, a patriot no less devoted to his little nation, equally brave, and just as smart by his own culture's determinants" (Kluger, 3).

Path to War

There is much about Leschi's activities after Medicine Creek that remains unknown or in dispute even today. His defenders point out that he had been dealing amicably with non-Natives since Fort Nisqually opened in 1833, when he was just 25 years old. Something approaching friendship existed between Leschi and a number HBC personnel, and he had been helpful to many early settlers, as attested to by Owen Bush and others. But after the 1850 Donation Land Claim Act brought waves of land-hungry pioneers into the region, serious strains developed. Then came the 1851 Indian Appropriations Act, making it the law of the land to confine Native Americans in reservations. At Medicine Creek the Nisquallies and others tribes and bands learned just what the consequences of this would be -- the loss of their homeland, and with it the slow death of their culture, their traditions, and in time, themselves.

After Medicine Creek, Leschi and Quiemuth retreated upriver to their Muck Creek home. In the early months of 1855 Leschi was reported to be going on horseback to Nisqually villages and those of other tribes in the region, perhaps to gauge sentiment, perhaps to warn of Stevens's perfidy, perhaps to recruit for war, most probably for all three. There is no evidence or even allegations that Leschi was involved in any violence on these forays, but it was soon clear that he was gathering followers. George Gibbs, not unsympathetic to the Native people, characterized Leschi during this time as "a busy intriguer" (Kluger, 115), and there is no reason to doubt that characterization.

In the spring of 1855 Leschi crossed the Cascades to confer with his Yakama relatives, Kamiakin, Owhi, and Qualchan, who had not yet signed a treaty with Stevens but knew that it was soon to come. Through Leschi's mother they were joined to him by blood; in June 1855, after having been coerced in their turn into signing away their land, they would join him in war.

Leschi returned to his own territory, perhaps emboldened by his more militant eastern kinsmen. He had no reputation as a warrior, but he had the respect of his people, an intimate knowledge of the region's terrain, and was a crack shot with a rifle. He also had been closely observing white people for more than two decades, and in October 1855 an HBC employee spotted him on a nearby prairie, drilling his warriors "like soldiers" (Eckrom, 20).

The Puget Sound Treaty War would not be fought in set-piece battles; the Natives knew that the numbers and weaponry of the military and militias would eventually be overwhelming. Nor did Leschi and his fighters try to take and hold territory, using instead practiced tactics of ambush and skirmish. In a typical attack, they would inflict as much damage as they could from concealed positions, then fade back into the forests they knew so well, taking with them, whenever possible, their dead and wounded. This would be a war of attrition, but it was a war, and recognized as such by both sides. Leschi was not fighting to overturn the reservation system in its entirety, but simply to force the government to provide reservations in locations and of sufficient size to give the tribes a chance for continued existence.

The Shooting Begins

The shooting war began east of the Cascades in September 1855 after Yakama people killed several white prospectors, and then U.S. Indian Subagent Andrew Jackson Bolon (c.1826-1855), who was sent to investigate. In response, a military force of 84 men, led by Major Granville O. Haller (1819-1897), trotted forth, only to beat a humiliating retreat when met by a superior Native force.

Events were also moving rapidly west of the Cascades. While Stevens was off pressing treaties onto tribes across the territory, young Charles Mason (1830-1859) was the acting governor. On October 16, 1855, he received a letter from James McAllister (whom Leschi had earlier guided to fertile land) stating in part, "Sir, I am of the opinion that he [Leschi] should be attended to as soon as convenient for fear that he might do something bad" (Kluger, 126).

Mason sent word that he would like to meet with Leschi, and on October 22, Leschi and Quiemuth traveled to Olympia. Leschi told Mason that he still harbored friendly feelings for whites in general and did not want to break the peace, but that his people needed a larger and more suitable reservation. Hoping to neutralize them, Mason asked Leschi and Quiemuth to return to the territorial capital with their families, guaranteeing their well-being. The Nisqually chiefs were non-committal, but had no intention of complying.

Two days later, in one of many strange twists in Leschi's tale, Mason directed Captain Charles H. Eaton, who lived with Leschi's daughter Kalakala, to lead 19 volunteer militiamen (including James McAllister) to apprehend Leschi and Quiemuth and take them into protective custody. When they reached the brothers' land at Muck Creek they found it abandoned, "a plow left standing in mid-furrow, a herd of horses left untended" (Kluger, 128). Leschi, his young wife Mary, Quiemuth, and two others had fled northeast. Near the White River they met a group of warriors, including Muckleshoots, who under the leadership of Chief Kitsap and Chief Nelson were in revolt against the terms of the Point Elliott Treaty, signed just weeks after Medicine Creek and equally confiscatory. Leschi now had allies, and soon he was recognized as the most influential chief among chiefs.

Next:Part 2 -- Victory in Defeat

Outraged by the sites and sizes of the reservations imposed on South Puget Sound tribes by the Medicine Creek Treaty, Leschi, a respected Nisqually, took up arms and was recognized as the overall leader of warriors from several of the affected tribes. In the spring of 1856, outgunned and outmanned, Leschi and his remaining Nisqually followers retreated to the sanctuary of the Kittitas Valley, where his mother's powerful kin held sway. Even out of combat, the Nisqually chief remained the primary focus for the vengeance of Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862). Upon returning west in late 1856, Leschi was betrayed by a relative, arrested, and charged with the murder of a volunteer militiaman. After a convoluted and error-filled legal odyssey and two trials, Leschi was convicted, and on a cold February 19, 1858, hanged at Steilacoom. But his fight had not been in vain -- a year before his execution, in January 1857, larger and more appropriate reservations were approved for the region's tribes. Nearly 150 years later, in 2004, a specially formed historical court exonerated Chief Leschi of the crime for which his life was taken.

Leschi at War

Once at war, Leschi had no qualms about killing regular soldiers and militiamen, and there is little doubt, though very little hard evidence, that he did so effectively. But several accounts, including from white settlers, support Leschi's insistence that he opposed the killing of women, children, and non-combatants, believing this would bring shame to the Native cause and turn supportive non-Natives (of which there were a substantial number in Pierce County) against them. Some warriors allied with Leschi had no such qualms, with tragic results.

Leschi's many skirmishes with soldiers and militia are not well documented, perhaps because Native warriors were adept at remaining unseen. The most notorious attacks he was accused of, all but one occurring in the last four days of October 1855, were:

The Killings of James McAllister and Michael Connell: Strong evidence exists of Leschi's involvement in the first white fatalities of the Puget Sound Treaty War. On October 27, 1855, after finding Leschi's Muck Creek farm abandoned, Captain Charles H. Eaton sent ahead two militiamen, James McAllister (whom Leschi had earlier helped find a fertile homestead) and Michael Connell, to try to locate Leschi; both were shot and killed from ambush.

Leschi is reported to have told a fellow Nisqually, Packwood Charlie, "I was engaged in the murder of McAllister" (Kluger, 133). He admitted ordering another Nisqually, Toopapyti, to shoot McAllister. When Toopapyti hesitated, Leschi allegedly warned that he would kill Toopapyti, then shoot McAllister himself, and Toopapyti complied. There is no evidence that Leschi ever denied complicity in the killings. (Note: Indicative of how difficult it is to distill truth from a welter of conflicting accounts, at least one source [Eckrom, 23] states that "Packwood Charlie" was actually the nickname of Captain Charles Eaton.)

The White River Massacre: The next day, in the White River Valley in King County, came the worst atrocity committed by Native Americans during the Puget Sound conflict. Most of the attackers were Muckleshoots and Klickitats, led by their chiefs, Nelson and Kanasket. Nine white settlers were killed, including two children and an infant. Leschi denied involvement, and evidence is lacking to prove otherwise. In his meticulously researched book, Richard Kluger writes that although "under [Leschi's] loose command," the White River attackers were "evidently out of his control" (Kluger, 134). It was the only mass killing of non-Native civilians west of the Cascades during the war, a fact some cite as evidence that Leschi's views prevailed.

The Death of Abram Benton Moses: The single killing for which Leschi was indicted and convicted occurred on October 31, 1855. A small group of volunteer militiamen was passing through a swampy area near Connell's Prairie in Pierce County. Two of the men, Antonio B. Rabbeson (1825-1891) and Abram Benton Moses (d. 1855) were, respectively, the sheriff and former sheriff of Thurston County. They were attacked, and Moses and militiaman Joseph Miles shot dead. More than a year later, Leschi would be indicted for the killing of Moses.

The Battle of Seattle: The evidence of Leschi's direct involvement is equivocal. Isaac Stevens and others blamed him and the Yakama chief, Owhi, for the attack, which came on January 26, 1856. The weight of evidence establishes Owhi's involvement, but no one on either side could firmly place Leschi at the scene, and he denied that he had had played any part. Although shocking, it was a relatively minor affair, lasting just a day. Native warriors sniped from the woods to the east of the muddy little settlement, while a cannon from the American warship Decaturshelled them in return. Two white settlers were killed, one by friendly fire. No Native casualties were found.

Leschi Seeks Peace

After the White River massacre, special Indian agent Michael Simmons (1814-1867) and his deputies rounded up nearly 4,000 Puget Sound tribal members and interned them on several islands. Most of the Nisquallies were housed on Fox Island, where they were supervised by a white fisherman, John Swan (1826-1905).

On January 5, 1856, 21 days before the Battle of Seattle, Leschi and 33 armed braves came to the island by canoe. Leschi asked Swan to tell the authorities that in return for peace, all the rebelling tribes wanted were new reservations in places and of a size to let them live as they were accustomed. Leschi also denied any involvement in the White River massacre, blaming it on cultus (Chinook Jargon for "bad") Indians (Kluger, 148).

Swan sent a message to Fort Steilacoom, just six miles away, asking that someone come meet with the chief. The fort's response was to borrow the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) steamship Beaver and send troops to arrest Leschi and his warriors. In their haste, the officers neglected to bring enough small vessels to ferry soldiers safely to shore, and after a brief standoff Leschi and his men eluded capture.

Shortly after the Battle of Seattle, Leschi made another offer of peace, this time through John McLeod, a white settler who had remained near Muck Creek. Leschi's offer eventually made its way to Governor Stevens. Whether intended as a response or not, Stevens shortly thereafter made a grotesque offer to the Snoqualmie chief, Patkanim (ca. 1815-1858) -- $20 for the head of any Leschi warrior and $80 for Leschi's head. A band of Snoqualmies soon located and attacked Leschi's camp in the forest, and after a night-long battle forced them to flee deeper into the woods.

Victory in Defeat

By March 1856 Leschi and his remaining followers were hungry, ill-clothed, isolated, and relentlessly pursued. His peace overtures spurned, he tried to slow the enemy's momentum by attacking military fortifications and a ferry landing being built at Connell's Prairie. It failed badly, and Leschi was done fighting. He and about 70 remaining followers made their way across the Cascades to take refuge with the Yakama Tribe in the Kittitas Valley. Leschi's young wife Mary did not accompany them.

In early August 1856, Governor Stevens convened a second treaty conference with several hundred Nisquallies still on Fox Island. In a blatant, self-serving lie, he told the assembled that the original reservations set out at Medicine Creek "were suggested by yourselves. I had them surveyed and found them not good" (Kluger, 181). Although inventing a history to his liking, he did promise revisions to the original treaty, painting it as an act of great magnanimity. Stevens claimed without proof to have sent word to Leschi and other chiefs 19 months earlier that the reservations would be changed. This seems highly unlikely, given Leschi's repeated offers to lay down arms in return for better reservations.

On January 20, 1857, President Franklin Pierce approved a new reservation for the Nisquallies, 4,717 acres (7.5 square miles) of bottomland straddling the Nisqually River and running about four miles northwest from Muck Creek. The Puyallup Tribe, whose leaders had not gone to war, was given a 36-square-mile site, and the Muckleshoot and related bands who had signed the Point Elliott Treaty received a reservation of their own. Now in hiding east of the Cascades, Leschi knew nothing of this victory.

Out for Blood

His reluctant admission that the first reservations were "not good" did nothing to diminish Stevens's deep hatred for Leschi. As a military man, he was angered that the Puget Sound Treaty War did not have a decisive ending, much less a formal surrender. The hostilities west of the Cascades simply petered out, depriving Stevens of the military glory he felt was his due.

By this time, his campaign for retribution had lost the support of the U.S. military, largely because of the predations of the governor's volunteer militias. In late March or early April of 1856, a militia unit led by Captain Hamilton J. G. Maxon (1813-1884) came upon a camp of 40 to 50 Nisquallies, mostly women, children, and unarmed older men, near the Mashel River. Maxon attacked, killing somewhere between 17 and 30 Native Americans, none of whom posed the slightest threat. Pleased, Stevens rewarded Maxon with a promotion to major, and later rejected the army's demand that he disband his undisciplined volunteers.

Stevens vs. the Courts

The Nisqually River was (and is) the dividing line between Pierce County and Thurston County. Since the establishment of HBC's Fort Nisqually in 1833, whites and Native people had lived side by side in Pierce County and maintained generally good relations. Politically, most people in the county were aligned with the Whigs (predecessor to today's Republican Party) rather than with the Democrats, a party that supported, or was willing to tolerate, the continuation of slavery.

Thurston County followed a different path. Upon his arrival in Olympia in late 1853, Stevens filled dozens of patronage positions with Democrats. The county became a political fiefdom, with Stevens the unchallenged party boss. In early 1854 a pro-Stevens newspaper, the Pioneer and Democrat, began publishing in Olympia, an unquestioning house organ for the governor, parroting and even outdoing his diatribes against Native Americans.

In early March 1856 Stevens became convinced that white farmers near Muck Creek, some married to Native women, were aiding Leschi and his warriors. He had a dozen families arrested and threatened several of the men with charges of treason. A territorial judge ordered them released; Stevens responded by declaring martial law in Pierce County, suspending all functions of civil government, including the courts.

As the farmers remained jailed, a series of outrageous events played out. These included the jailing by Stevens of Edward M. Lander (1816-1907), the chief justice of the territorial supreme court, who when released issued a bench warrant for the governor's arrest. Stevens responded by extending martial law to Thurston County and having Lander arrested a second time. Stevens was cited for contempt of court, but granted himself a temporary pardon (although a $50 fine was eventually paid by one of his supporters). There were armed confrontations between Stevens's militias and civilian authorities in courtrooms and at the governor's home. Finally, on May 28, another judge ordered the farmers brought to the Pierce County court. A prosecutor determined the charges against them were without merit and they were finally released.

The governor's outrageous behavior prompted a group of former associates, including George Gibbs, the author of the Medicine Creek Treaty, to write to the U.S. secretary of state in protest. Their letter claimed that Stevens's worst tendencies had been "further inflamed by the immoderate use of ardent spirits, and in his fits of intoxication [he] knows no bounds to his language or to his actions" (Kluger, 172). The territorial legislature and the U.S. Senate both censured Stevens, and the secretary of state informed him that President Pierce had expressed "distinct disapproval of your conduct so far as respects the proclamation of martial law ..." (Kluger, 175). But by now Stevens considered himself above reproach; the chastening did nothing to moderate his behavior, and his campaign against Leschi continued unabated.

Leschi Comes Home

In June 1856, with 20 unarmed warriors and their families, Leschi approached Colonel George Wright (1803-1865), commander of the army's Ninth Infantry bivouacked not far from Leschi's encampment in the Kittitas Valley. Despite Leschi's pledge that he was now irrevocably for peace, Wright feared that the chief's return to his homeland might reignite hostilities. He promised the Nisquallies that so long as they remained under his jurisdiction and caused no trouble, he would assure their personal safety.

Stevens was not pleased, and demanded of Wright that "no arrangement be made which will save their necks from the Executioner" (Kluger, 188). Wright offered to encourage Leschi and his followers to return to Pierce County, but only if Stevens would guarantee their safety, which he of course would not consider. His hatred undimmed by the passage of time or the outbreak of peace, he told the army commander of Fort Steilacoom, Colonel Silas Casey (1807-1882), that Leschi and others were "notorious murderers" who had committed savage acts "under circumstances of treachery and blood thirstiness almost beyond example" (Kluger, 189).

By the early fall of 1856 word of the new reservation had reached Leschi in the Kittitas Valley, prompting some of his followers to cross back over the Cascades. Leschi, said to be homesick and missing his wife, returned as well, but remained in hiding. He ventured once to Fort Nisqually to confirm to HBC's William Tolmie that he would wage no further war, even offering to cut off his right hand as proof of his sincerity. Leschi was willing to put himself under the protection of Casey at Fort Steilacoom, but Casey, wary of Stevens, thought it in Leschi's best interest to stay hidden in the woods for the time being.

Leschi and the Law

On November 3, 1856, a grand jury convened in the Third Judicial District at Steilacoom, Judge Francis Chenoweth (1819-1899) presiding, to consider charges again Leschi. As a foretaste of what sort of justice Leschi could expect, the foreman of the grand jury was none other than Antonio B. Rabbeson, the sheriff of Thurston County and a witness to the death one year earlier of his predecessor, Abram Benton Moses. Not surprisingly, the grand jury indicted Leschi for killing Moses, but that was not the last of the Rabbeson's involvement. In the two trials that followed, he would be the primary witness for the prosecution, the only one whose testimony, however muddled, implicated Leschi.

Ten days after the grand jury indictment, on November 13, Leschi's nephew Sluggia delivered him into custody in return for a reward of 50 blankets. An additional motive for the betrayal may have been Sluggia's infatuation with Leschi's wife Mary. Leschi was taken first to Steilacoom, then briefly to Stevens's Olympia home, where the two had their first face-to-face encounter since Medicine Creek. No record of what occurred at that meeting remains.

Leschi's First Trial

With Leschi at last in captivity, the governor wasted no time. He sent a message asking Judge Chenoweth to open his court in special session to bring Leschi immediately to trial. Although he had been at odds with Stevens during the martial-law controversy, the judge complied. The first trial of Leschi got underway on November 17, 1856, at Steilacoom, where many did not share the virulent anti-Indian sentiment that prevailed in the governor's Olympia stronghold.

Unfortunately, all notes and records from that trial were destroyed in a fire, leaving researchers with just a few personal recollections and the biased reporting of the pro-Stevens Pioneer and Democrat, then the region's only newspaper. Its account claimed that "The evidence of A. B. Rabbeson Esq. was conclusive, and to the point. He testified that ... he saw Leschi, Quiemuth, and another Indian issue from the brush, and take a position in the road in front of him, at a distance of not to exceed thirty-five or forty feet; and that then and there Leschi deliberately leveled his gun at him and fired" ("Leschi, Quiemuth, etc."). Note that Rabbeson testified that Leschi had fired at him, not at Abram Benton Moses, who the evidence showed had been shot somewhat earlier.

Only two witnesses were identified for the defense. William Tolmie of HBC apparently vouched for Leschi's good character and reputation. In yet another bizarre twist, Leschi's nephew and betrayer, Sluggia, was the other defense witness. According to the Pioneer and Democrat (which identified him as "Sluggy"), he testified that he was "present when Moses and Miles were killed, and that he knew, at that time, Leschi was on the other side of the Cascades" ("Leschi, Quiemuth, etc.").

The case went to the jury, which included Ezra Meeker (1830-1928), at about 7 p.m. that evening. According to Meeker, writing 50 years after the event, "The judge [Chenoweth] had charged that if the deed were done as an act of war, the prisoner could not be held answerable to the civil law. Four of us so held, and refused to convict" (Meeker, 420). Meeker later said there were only two votes for acquittal, one of them cast by him. Either way, the question of whether Leschi had actually been at the scene, and if so, whether he had shot Abram Moses, was never reached.

On the morning of November 18 Judge Chenoweth ordered a mistrial and excused the jury. On November 19, perhaps heartened by the result, Leschi's half-brother, Quiemuth, traveled to Olympia and surrendered to Stevens. That night he was murdered, shot and stabbed while sleeping in the governor's house. No one was ever charged with the crime.

Leschi's Second Trial

A month after Leschi's first trial, in a move that some historians claim was nefarious (Olson, 30) and others characterize as probably routine (Kunsch, 78-80), the territorial legislature moved Pierce County into the Second Judicial District, with Olympia designated as the place where court would be held. Leschi would be retried in the lion's den, where Stevens ruled supreme, the racist paper Pioneer and Democrat steered public opinion, and a jury would likely include men predisposed to finding him guilty.

The trial began on March 18, 1857, with Judge Lander presiding. Lander had both grappled with Stevens over martial law and commanded a militia unit that had fought in the Puget Sound Treaty War, possibly against Leschi himself, circumstances that today would require his recusal. In yet another strange turn, Frank Clark (1832-1833), who had been a prosecutor in the first trial, was now co-counsel in Leschi's defense, together with William Henson Wallace (1811-1879), who four years later would become Washington Territory's fourth governor.

Once again, Rabbeson was the prosecution's star witness, and once again his testimony was convoluted and, to many observers, unpersuasive. He testified that the attack took place in two volleys, with Moses and Miles killed in the first. It was somewhat later, near sunset, that Leschi allegedly had appeared with two other Native men and shot at Rabbeson. Neither he nor any other witness claimed to have seen who had fired the first and fatal volley, leaving the jury little to guide them but speculation and prejudice. Significantly, Judge Lander refused to give an instruction that the killing of an armed enemy in wartime was not recognized as murder.

That was enough to ensure a verdict of guilty, returned on March 19. A request for a new trial was denied, and Leschi's execution date was set for June 10. His attorneys appealed to the territorial supreme court, which would not convene until December, guaranteeing that the execution could not be carried out before January 1858.

A Foregone Conclusion

The territorial supreme court had three justices -- Chenoweth and Lander, who had, respectively, presided over Leschi's first and second trials, and Obadiah B. McFadden (1815-1875). Lander was absent from the territory, so only Chenoweth and McFadden heard the appeal, which was argued on December 16, 1857. Any hope that it would be favorable to the accused was put to rest by the second and third sentences of Justice McFadden's opinion, joined in by Justice Chenoweth.

"The prisoner has occupied a position of influence, as one of a band of Indians, who, in connection with other tribes, sacrificed the lives of so many of our citizens, in the war so cruelly waged against our people on the waters of Puget Sound.

"It speaks volumes for our people that, notwithstanding the spirit of indignation and revenge, so natural to the human heart, incited by the ruthless massacre of their families, that at the trial of the accused deliberate impartiality has been manifested at every stage of the proceedings" (1 Wash. Terr. at 13).

The guilty verdict was sustained and a new execution date set for January 22, 1858, at the town of Steilacoom, the army having refused the use of its fort. Ezra Meeker, not always the most reliable chronicler, wrote many years later that after the court's decision, Leschi made a statement. He denied having killed either Moses or Miles, and said, with William Tolmie translating, "I do not know anything about your laws. I have supposed that the killing of armed men in war time was not murder. If it was, the soldiers who killed Indians were guilty of murder too" (Meeker, 427-428). Territorial Governor Fayette McMullen, who had recently replaced Stevens, was unmoved, and a pardon was denied.

Desperate Measures

As the day of execution approached, Colonel Casey of Fort Steilacoom made clear to civilian authorities that the army wanted nothing to do with the hanging, which "his whole garrison viewed as outright murder" (Kluger, 238), a sentiment shared by the designated, if reluctant, executioners, Pierce County Sheriff George Williams and his deputy.

Attorney Frank Clark, who had both prosecuted and defended Leschi, hatched a devious plan to prevent the execution. On either the evening before or the very day it was scheduled, he enlisted a Native man to claim before a U.S. commissioner that the sheriff and his deputy had been selling liquor to the Natives, a serious offense that justified their immediate arrest. The willing lawmen, in on the plan, were taken into custody and unavailable to carry out the execution. The apparent goal of the ploy was to provide time for an appeal to President James Buchanan (1791-1868) to prevent the hanging.

It was in vain. The territorial legislature quickly ordered the supreme court to resolve the issue, and the court assigned the matter to Judge Chenoweth. He set a new execution date, February 19, and ordered that even though it would still take place in Steilacoom, the Thurston County sheriff would be in charge.

On the appointed day, Leschi was taken on horseback from Fort Steilacoom to the gallows where, with tribal drums sounding mournfully in the distance, he met his death at 11:35 a.m. Even the Pioneer and Democrat, which had been demanding his demise for years, was moved to report, "Leschi, the brave in battle, was launched into eternity without having moved a muscle to indicate fear of death (by hanging) so dreadful to an Indian" ("Execution of Leschi"). Years later Charles Grainger, the reluctant hangman, told Ezra Meeker, "I felt then I was hanging an innocent man, and believe it yet" (Meeker, 454).

Justice Long Delayed

On December 10, 2004, after years of effort by Nisquallies to clear the name of their last chief, a special "historical court" comprising present and former justices of the Washington State Supreme Court heard evidence and argument on the legality of Leschi's conviction and execution. The panel unanimously concluded, in the words of Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, "Chief Leschi should not, as a matter of law, have been tried for the crime of murder" ("Historical Court Clears ..."). The court did not decide whether Leschi had in fact killed Moses. Rather, agreeing with Ezra Meeker's verdict, given nearly 150 years earlier, the justices ruled that Leschi, as a legal combatant in war, could not be held accountable under law for the death of an enemy soldier. Although the decision carries no practical legal significance, it validates the first words on the grave marker of the chief, which read:

LESCHI

Judicially Murdered, Feb. 19, 1858