Puyallup Indian Acculturation, Federal Indian Policy and the City of Tacoma, 1832-1909
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The Promise and the Price of Contact: Puyallup Indian Acculturation, Federal Indian Policy and the City of Tacoma, 1832-1909 Kurt Kim Schaefer A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2016 Dr. John Findlay, Chair Dr. Alexandra Harmon Dr. Bruce Hevly Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of History The Promise and the Price of Contact: Puyallup Indian Acculturation, Federal Indian Policy and the City of Tacoma, 1832-1909 Copyright 2016 Kurt Kim Schaefer University of Washington Abstract The Promise and the Price of Contact: Puyallup Indian Acculturation, Federal Indian Policy and the City of Tacoma, 1832-1909 Kurt Kim Schaefer Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. John Findlay Department of History History shows that Native American contact with Euro-Americans led to many Indians’ loss of land, resources, and independence. Between 1832 and 1909, numerous Puyallup Indians of the south Puget Sound suffered this fate as they dealt with newly imported Euro-American diseases and colonialism. As tragic as this era in history was to the Puyallup, it was also a time when many tribal members continued a long tradition of embracing outside influences into their lives and shaping them to fit their cultural needs. This study will show that prior to 1832, the Puyallup had a long, complex, and generally prosperous relationship with other communities in the Puget Sound region and cultural transformation was a normal part of their life. After 1832, change came more quickly and, unfortunately, was more destructive. Nevertheless, many Puyallup continued accepting change and some successfully shaped their new situation to fit their needs, just as their ancestors had done. A modest portion of the tribe employed aspects of the Medicine Creek Treaty, the nearby city of Tacoma, and assorted Euro-American legal and economic institutions to pursue numerous Puyallup customs. And, while transformation remained difficult for a majority of the tribe, I argue that their failures were the result of a restrictive government allotment policy as much as the Indians’ inability or unwillingness to adapt to their new conditions. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: A Distinguished Visitor……………….……………………….Page 1 Chapter 1: S’Puyalupubsh Cultural Development, Adaptation, and Persistence through 1854………..……………….……….....Page 35 Chapter 2: To “Have an Object for Which to Labor”: Puyallup Shaping and Utilization of the Medicine Creek Treaty, 1855-1872……………………………………….…..Page 93 Chapter 3: Task Time, Clock Time and the Puyallup’s Push for Reservation Patents, 1873-1883…………………...….Page 155 Chapter 4: The Puyallup’s Campaign for Land Sales Rights, 1883-1893………………………………....Page 219 Chapter 5: A Bitter Pill of Indian Reform, 1893-1909………….………....Page 283 Epilogue………………………………………………………….……..….Page 343 ii iii iv Acknowledgements The production of this body of research has been enlightening and often enjoyable. But the time and effort that one puts into projects like these are enormous and in my case I succeeded with the help of an important group of people. The most helpful contributor to this dissertation was my committee chair, Dr. John Findlay. John’s knowledge of the American West and the research that he and others have done on the topic gave me important insights to the Puyallup and the world they inhabited. Meanwhile, I will forever appreciate his patience with me as I went down an occasional rabbit hole during the completion of the manuscript. Dr. Sasha Harmon and Dr. Bruce Hevly were the other members of my reading committee and they, too, brought their own enlightened and unique perspectives to my research. That being said, I take responsibility for any errors that may crop up in this document. I also want to extend a thank you to Kathleen Laurante, a librarian at Bates Technical College who helped me obtain research material, the staff of the Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room, who happily pointed me in the right direction as I searched for information, and the researchers at the Pacific-Alaska Region National Archives in Seattle for their effective assistance. An earlier version of Chapter 5 appeared in Pacific Northwest Quarterly . I thank the journal for allowing me to publish that information, which helped me work through some of the themes for this manuscript. Another thank you to my daughter, Haley Schaefer. She created the maps. Finally, I want to thank my circle of friends who were often there for me when I needed to take my mind off of this work. v To Clarence & Rose And Miles & Haley 1 INTRODUCTION: A DISTINGUISHED VISITOR In the afternoon of August 22, 1892, a Puyallup Indian named Peter Stanup patiently stood on the southwest corner of his people’s reservation, just outside the city of Tacoma, Washington. Stanup was a thirty-five year old Native who had adopted a number of Euro- American cultural practices into his life. During his youth, he attended several government-run Indian schools and later, as an adult, he earned money as a laborer and entrepreneur in the local market economy. He also served as a pastor in his reservation’s Christian church. These activities helped him establish a number of economic and social relationships with local non- Natives, which in turn helped him garner a significant amount of prestige and influence within his tribe. On this particular day, Stanup wore a suit and tie, an apparel choice that displayed his ability to incorporate aspects of the non-Native world into his life. His attire choice also illustrated an understanding of how some Euro-Americans showed respect for an important guest. Stanup was waiting for the arrival of United States Secretary of Interior John Noble, who was traveling throughout the West to attend to the business of his department and, when time permitted, indulge in some sightseeing. He came to Tacoma to gather information from the Puyallup and non-Natives in order to decide the future of the Indians’ thirty-six year old reservation. As of 1892, the reserve was home to approximately 600 Indians. Most of the residents possessed patented allotments, which protected their property from non-Native takeover. However, this type of title prohibited the Puyallup from selling their plots or leasing them for more than two years at a time. The government had instituted this policy in order to protect what it believed to be simple-minded aboriginals from becoming the victims of their own bad choices or from losing their property to non-Indian swindlers. Noble came to Tacoma to 2 determine if the government should maintain these restrictions or change them in one way or another. Many of the Puyallup, like most other Natives in the American West, placed a lot of importance on their reservation lands and they hoped that the Interior Secretary would enforce particular Indian treaty rights concerning their allotments. However, the record of what transpired between the Puyallup allottees and Noble shows that there were contradicting ideas within the tribe about how the government could meet these expectations. These Indians also revealed that they had a complicated relationship with their land and their neighbors. Tacoma city leaders and entrepreneurs were the first locals to greet Noble when he arrived in Tacoma that morning. As he stepped off the train, his hosts found him to be “a man of medium height, of somewhat heavy build… [with]…a certain heaviness of the facial features [that] is attributable to too close attention to desk work.” 1 The welcoming committee immediately took the secretary to a reception hosted by local businessmen. Virtually all of these attendees wanted the Indian Office to remove its sales and lease restrictions on the Puyallup Reservation so they could gain more access to its resources and own its valuable land. These aspiring customers justified their desires by arguing that the reservation, which had been in existence since 1856, remained woefully undeveloped. Stands of trees, large thickets of thorny blackberry bushes, and numerous small, shallow ponds covered vast expanses of the reserve. Less conspicuous were places where Indian residents had cleared a portion of their property and built a small home. Some of the Puyallup had also constructed barns and then fenced sections of their allotments to simultaneously protect crops from wild foragers and hem in domesticated animals. Many of these sites were less than an acre in size, though a few of the larger 1 “The ‘Little Father’,” Daily Ledger (Tacoma), August 24, 1892, 5. 3 homesteads were in excess of thirty acres. The Puyallup’s efforts to develop their land did little to impress most of their non-Native neighbors. One observer noted, “A majority of [the] sites were evidences that order is not regarded as the very first law…of the Puyallups.” Meanwhile, “the roads that connected these homes were full of “pits and holes that kept…carriage springs in constant terror.” 2 Noble was aware that large portions of the reservation were undeveloped and that local non-Indians wanted to turn the Indians’ woods, prairies and tidelands into their own productive farms and ports. At the same time, he understood the land was vital to the existence of many Puyallup and he had to consider their welfare in any decisions that he made. Consequently, after he had listened to the concerns of local non-Native entrepreneurs he journeyed to the Puyallup Reservation to meet with Stanup and the reservation’s agent, Edwin Eells. These two men would take their guest on a tour of the reserve and argue for their own views concerning the issue at hand. Eells, like Tacoma’s businessmen, wanted Noble to notice the undeveloped state of most of the reserve, especially the Indians’ home sites. The agent sympathized with the economic desires of his local non-Native friends and acquaintances and he shared their belief that the Puyallup were an intellectually and culturally inferior race of people.