The bitter waters of Medicine Creek : a tragic clash between white and native America

Title:

Author:

Summary:

Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Kluger brings to life a bloody clash between Native Americans and white settlers in the 1850s Pacific Northwest.

The story of a dramatic confrontation between Native Americans and white settlers in the newly created Washington Territory from 1853 to 1857. Washington's first governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, had one goal: to persuade (peacefully if possible) the Indians of the Puget Sound region to turn over their ancestral lands to the federal government. In return, they were to be consigned to reservations unsuitable for hunting, fishing, or grazing--their traditional means of sustaining life. The result was an outbreak of violence and rebellion. Social historian Richard Kluger recounts the impact of Stevens's program on the Nisqually tribe. His hasty treaty negotiations with the Indians, marked by deceit, threat, and misrepresentation, inflamed his opponents. Chief Leschi, resolved to save more than a few patches of his people's lush homelands, unwittingly turned his tribe--and himself most of all--into victims of the governor's relentless wrath. The conflict would have echoes far into the future.--From publisher description.

Contents:

Preface : A fresh reckoning -- Pt. I. The governor and the chief -- "I know what I am about" -- Paradise for free -- The Northwest Express -- A credit to his race -- Christmas at Medicine Creek -- Blood in the Autumn air -- The territory in dread -- An impressive performance -- The wages of zealotry -- Pt. II. The trials of Leschi -- Judgment day - and night -- With malice aforethought -- All the favors of the law -- Epilogue : After Leschi -- I. Salmon and survival -- II. For whom the eagle cries -- III. Red wind rising.

Physical Description:

xvi, 330 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., map ; 21 cm.

Personal Subject:

Leschi Nisqually chief, d. 1858-Trials, litigation, etc.

Leschi Nisqually chief, d. 1858.

Stevens, Isaac Ingalls, 1818-1862.

Subject Term:

Nisqually Indians -- Government relations.

Nisqually Indians -- History -- 19th century.

Geographic Term:

Puget Sound (Wash.) -- History -- 19th century.

Publisher:

Vintage Books,

Publication Date:

2011

2012

ISBN:

9780307388964

Publication Information:

New York : Vintage Books, 2011.

Call Number:

979.7 KLUGER

Holds: Copies:

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Summary

Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Kluger brings to life a bloody clash between Native Americans and white settlers in the 1850s Pacific Northwest. After he was appointed the first governor of the state of Washington, Isaac Ingalls Stevens had one goal: to persuade the Indians of the Puget Sound region to leave their ancestral lands for inhospitable reservations.nbsp;But Stevens's program--marked by threat and misrepresentation--outraged the Nisqually tribe and its chief, Leschi, sparking the native resistance movement.nbsp;Tragically, Leschi's resistance unwittingly turned his tribe and himself into victims of the governor's relentless wrath. The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek is a riveting chronicle of hownbsp;violence and rebellion grew out of frontier oppression and injustice.

Author Notes

Richard Kluger is the author of Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris , which won the Pulitzer Prize. His Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality and The Paper: The Life and Death of the New York Herald Tribune both were finalists for the National Book Award. He is the author or coauthor of eight novels as well. He lives in Northern California.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In the mid-19th century, the rainy shores of Puget Sound were among America's last frontiers-and the site of a brief but fierce war fought in 1855-1856 between the Nisqually tribe and the territory's militia and army. With vivid detail, Kluger (Simple Justice) examines the encounter, beginning with the benchmark 1853 treaty of Medicine Creek and its ambitious architect, Gov. Isaac Stevens, who "bloodlessly wrested formal title to 100,000 square miles." Despite scant source materials, the author sketches a portrait of Leschi, the Nisqually chief, whose resistance to the treaty placed him in direct confrontation with Stevens. After Leschi's arrest for allegedly killing a militiaman, Stevens engineered the chief's 1856 prosecution-and ultimate conviction and execution. (Leschi's final statement is heartrending: "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, then soldiers who killed Indians were guilty of murder too.") The conclusion, the 2004 exoneration of Leschi's actions by an unofficial historical court, followed by the launch of the tribe's Red Wind casino, winds up being a redemptive postscript to an affecting chapter of regional history. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Pulitzer Prize-winning (Ashes to Ashes) author Kluger (www.richardkluger.com) applies his solid research and writing skills to this compelling story of the 1853-57 conflict between expansionist America and the Native Americans of the Puget Sound region of Washington State. Kluger focuses on key personalities, in particular the first Washington State governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, and Leschi, chief of the small Nisqually nation. As often happened in these encounters, the Puget Sound Indians were persuaded to turn over their ancestral lands to the federal government and were relocated to reservations on poor land unsuitable for hunting, fishing, or grazing. The inevitable result was rebellion and violence, ending with Leschi's murder conviction and execution. An interesting epilog covers the 2004 retrial that posthumously exonerated Leschi. Voice actor Alan Sklar's (see Behind the Mike, LJ 3/1/09) solemn narration enhances this fascinating albeit painful reminder of the sordid, shadowy history of the U.S. government's oppression of Native Americans. Essential for history buffs and teachers. ["Well-researched and beautifully written.recommended for readers interested in the history of the Pacific Northwest," read the review of the Knopf hc, LJ 1/11.-Ed.]-Dale Farris, Groves, TX (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.