13. The treaty to go into effect as soon as ratified by the President and Senate.
The twelfth article was aimed against the liquor traffic, and also to counteract the undue influence of the Hudson Bay Company. It carried out the idea expressed in the governor’s instructions to McClellan and Saxton at the outset of the exploration, already quoted. “The Indians must look to us for protection and counsel.... I am determined, in my intercourse with the Indians, to break up the ascendency of the Hudson Bay Company, and permit no authority or sanction to come between the Indians and the officers of this government.”
Sixty-two Indians signed this treaty, “chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Squawksin, S’Homamish, Steh-chass, T’Peek-sin, Squiaitl, and Sa-ha-wamish tribes and bands of Indians, occupying the lands lying around the head of Puget Sound and the adjacent inlets, who, for the purpose of this treaty, are to be regarded as one nation.” The Indians all made their marks to their names as written out in full by the secretary. They were: Qui-ee-metl, Sno-ho-dum-set, Lesh-high, Slip-o-elm, Kwi-ats, Sta-hi, Di-a-keh, Hi-ten, Squa-ta-hun, Kahk-tse-min, So-nan-o-youtl, Kl-tehp, Sahl-ko-min, T’Bet-ste-heh-bit, Tcha-hoos-tan, Ke-cha-hat, Spee-peh, Swe-yah-tum, Chah-achsh, Pich-kehd, S’Klah-o-sum, Sah-le-tatl, See-lup, E-la-kah-ka, Slug-yeh, Hi-nuk, Ma-mo-nish, Cheels, Knut-ca-nu, Bats-ta-ko-be, Win-ne-ya, Klo-out, Se-uch-ka-nam, Ske-mah-han, Wuts-un-a-pum, Quuts-a-tadm, Quut-a-heh-mtsn, Yah-leh-chn, To-tahl-kut, Yul-lout, See-ahts-oot-soot, Ye-tah-ko, We-po-it-ee, Kah-sld, La’h-hom-kan, Pah-how-at-ish, Swe-yehm, Sah-hwill, Se-kwaht, Kah-hum-kit, Yah-kwo-bah, Wut-sah-le-wun, Sah-ba-hat, Tel-e-kish, Swe-keh-nam, Sit-oo-ah, Ko-quel-a-cut, Jack, Keh-kise-be-lo, Go-yeh-hn, Sah-putsh, William.
Lesh-high, the third signer, was the principal chief and instigator of the Indian war that broke out the following year, and, after the outbreak was suppressed, was tried and executed for the murder of settlers, after an excited controversy and strenuous efforts to save him on the part of some of the regular officers. Born of a Yakima mother, he was a chief of unusual intelligence and energy, had much to do with the Hudson Bay Company’s people at Fort Nisqually, by whom he was much trusted as a guide and hunter, and was supposed to be well affected towards the whites. The first signer, Qui-ee-muth, was Lesh-high’s brother, and met with a more tragic fate, being slain by a revengeful settler after he was captured. Sta-hi, the fifth signer, was killed during the Indian war.
The witnesses who signed the treaty, nineteen in number, including well-known public men and pioneers, were the following: M.T. Simmons, Indian agent; James Doty, secretary; C.H. Mason, secretary of the Territory; W.A. Slaughter, 1st lieutenant, 4th infantry, U.S. A.; James McAlister, E. Giddings, Jr., George Shazer, Henry D. Cock, Orrington Cushman, S.S. Ford, Jr., John W. McAlister, Peter Anderson, Samuel Klady, W.H. Pullen, F.O. Hough, E.R. Tyerall, George Gibbs, Benjamin F. Shaw, interpreter, Hazard Stevens.
The governor became satisfied at a later date that the reservations set off for the Nisquallies and Puyallups were inadequate for their future needs, being of inferior soil and heavily timbered, and in 1856 caused them to be exchanged for two larger tracts of fine, fertile bottom land,—one on the Nisqually, a few miles above its mouth, and the other at the mouth of the Puyallup River, directly opposite the city of Tacoma, which the Indians still occupy.
In the evening, after the council broke up, the governor had another long conference with his advisory board, and settled the points and programme for other treaties. The next morning, directing Gibbs to survey the lines of the two reservations on Nisqually and Commencement bays, and dispatching Simmons and Shaw with the rest of the party in the schooner to the lower Sound to assemble the Indians for the remaining treaties, he returned to Olympia with Mason and Doty. The treaty was immediately forwarded to Washington, and was ratified by the Senate, March 3, 1855, but little over two months after the council.
THE TREATY OF POINT ELLIOTT.
The next council was held at Mukilteo, or Point Elliott, where, between January 12 and 21, the Indians of the east side of the Sound assembled to the number of 2300. On the latter date Governor Stevens arrived on the Major Tompkins, accompanied by Secretary Mason, and by his friend, Dr. C.M. Hitchcock, of San Francisco, who was visiting the country. After a long conference with his assistants in regard to the most suitable points for reservations, and the views and feelings of the Indians, he appointed Gibbs secretary, in place of Doty, who had departed on his mission east of the mountains, and directed him to prepare the draft of a treaty embodying the points decided upon, and in terms similar to the one recently concluded.
The next morning the Indians all assembled; the four head chiefs—Seattle, chief of the Duwhamish and other bands on White River and the Sound within twenty miles of Seattle; Pat-ka-nim, chief of the Snohomish; Goliah, chief of the Skagits; and Chow-its-hoot, chief of the Bellingham Bay and island Indians—took seats in front on the ground; the sub-chiefs occupied a second row, and the various tribes took places behind them in separated groups. The governor then addressed them as follows, Colonel Shaw interpreting:—