Chief Leschi
Encyclopedia
Chief Leschi was chief of the Nisqually
Native American
tribe. He was hanged
for murder
in 1858, but exonerated in 2004.
, to a Nisqually father and a Yakama
mother. He was appointed chief by Isaac Stevens
, first governor of Washington Territory
, to represent the Nisqually and Puyallup
tribes at the Medicine Creek Treaty
council of December 26, 1854, which ceded to the United States
all or part of present-day King
, Pierce
, Lewis
, Grays Harbor
, Mason, and Thurston Counties and stipulated that the American Indians inhabiting the area move to reservations
. Some maintain that Leschi either refused to sign (and had his "X" forged
by another) or signed under protest. The historical record is unclear on this point. However, he did argue that the reservation designated for the Nisqually tribe was a rocky piece of high ground unsuited to growing food and cut off from access to the river that provided the mainstay of their livelihood, salmon.
In 1855, Leschi traveled to the territorial capital at Olympia
to protest the terms of the treaty. In October, Acting Governor Mason ordered that Leschi and his brother Quiemuth be taken into "protective custody" and sent the militia after them, thereby initiating the Puget Sound War
of 1855–1856. Leschi became war chief, in command of around 300 men, and led a small number of raids which panicked the white population. Early in the conflict, Territorial militiamen Abram Benton Moses and Joseph Miles (or Miller) were killed. Infuriated territorial authorities blamed the killings on Leschi, who remained at large for nearly a year. Convinced that white settlers were cooperating with Leschi, Stevens declared martial law over Pierce County on April 2, 1856.
Leschi was taken into custody in November 1856, and his brother Quiemuth turned himself in shortly thereafter. Quiemuth was murdered on November 18, 1856, by an unknown assailant, in Governor Stevens's office in Olympia, where he was being held for the night on his way to the jail at Fort Steilacoom
, now in Lakewood, Washington
. Leschi himself was put on trial in 1858 for the murder of Colonel Moses, which he denied having committed. His first trial
resulted in a hung jury
because of the judge's instruction that killing of combatants during wartime did not constitute murder. He was convicted and sentenced to death
in a second trial in which this instruction was not given and his lawyers, Frank Clark and William Wallace, were not allowed to introduce potentially exonerating evidence.
One supporter, William Fraser Tolmie
, petitioned the new governor, LaFayette McMullen
, to pardon Leschi, but the governor refused. Another supporter, United States Army officer August Kautz
, published two issues of a newspaper defending Leschi. Titled the Truth Teller, the newspaper's masthead stated: "Devoted to the Dissemination of Truth and the Suppression of Humbug." Tolmie's petition and the front page of the Truth Teller are reprinted in Ezra Meeker's 1905 history, The Tragedy of Leschi. Meeker was one of two who voted for acquittal on the first hung jury trial.
in a small valley, from a hastily constructed gallows
near Lake Steilacoom
, on land which later became a golf course and is now housing. There is a small monument nearby in strip mall in Lakewood. The hangman is reported to have later said "I felt then I was hanging an innocent man, and I believe it yet."
in Seattle after the chief in the late 1880s. Today, the neighborhood and its waterfront park
; schools in Seattle and Puyallup
; and streets in Seattle, Lakewood, Steilacoom
, Anderson Island, and Olympia, bear his name. Additionally, the MOUT site at Joint Base Lewis-McChord
is named Leschi Town in his honor.
In March 2004, both houses of the Washington state legislature passed resolutions stating that Leschi was wrongly convicted and executed and asked the state supreme court to vacate Leschi's conviction. The court's chief justice, however, said that this was unlikely to happen, since it was not at all clear that the state court had jurisdiction in a matter decided 146 years earlier in a territorial court. On December 10, 2004, Chief Leschi was exonerated by a unanimous vote by a Historical Court of Inquiry following a definitive trial in absentia.
Nisqually (tribe)
Nisqually is a Lushootseed Native American tribe in western Washington state in the United States. The tribe lives on a reservation in the Nisqually River valley near the river delta. The Nisqually Indian Reservation, at , comprises 20.602 km² of land area on both sides of the river, in...
Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe. He was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
for murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
in 1858, but exonerated in 2004.
Life
Leschi was born in 1808 near what is today Eatonville, WashingtonEatonville, Washington
Eatonville is a town in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,758 at the 2010 census.-History:For centuries, Indian people roamed the rivers and streams of the Eatonville area. Indian Henry was one of those who, in 1889, guided the town's founder, Thomas C. Van Eaton, from...
, to a Nisqually father and a Yakama
Yakama
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, or simply Yakama Nation , is a Native American group with nearly 10,000 enrolled members, living in Washington. Their reservation, along the Yakima River, covers an area of approximately 1.2 million acres...
mother. He was appointed chief by Isaac Stevens
Isaac Stevens
Isaac Ingalls Stevens was the first governor of Washington Territory, a United States Congressman, and a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War until his death at the Battle of Chantilly...
, first governor of Washington Territory
Washington Territory
The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 8, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington....
, to represent the Nisqually and Puyallup
Puyallup (tribe)
The Puyallup are a Coast Salish Native American tribe from western Washington state, U.S.A. They were forcibly relocated onto reservation lands in what is today Tacoma, Washington, in late 1854, after signing the Treaty of Medicine Creek. The Puyallup Indian Reservation today is one of the most...
tribes at the Medicine Creek Treaty
Treaty of Medicine Creek
The Treaty of Medicine Creek was an 1854 treaty between the United States, and the Nisqually, Puyallup and Squaxin Island tribes, along with six other smaller Native American tribes.-Site:...
council of December 26, 1854, which ceded to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
all or part of present-day King
King County, Washington
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
, Pierce
Pierce County, Washington
right|thumb|[[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]] - Seat of Pierce CountyPierce County is the second most populous county in the U.S. state of Washington. Formed out of Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the legislature of Oregon Territory...
, Lewis
Lewis County, Washington
Lewis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of 2010, the population was 75,455. The county seat is at Chehalis, and its largest city is Centralia....
, Grays Harbor
Grays Harbor County, Washington
Grays Harbor County is a county in the state of Washington, in the United States of America. As of 2010, the population was 72,797. The county seat is at Montesano, and its largest city is Aberdeen. The county is named after a large estuarine bay near its southwestern corner...
, Mason, and Thurston Counties and stipulated that the American Indians inhabiting the area move to reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
. Some maintain that Leschi either refused to sign (and had his "X" forged
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
by another) or signed under protest. The historical record is unclear on this point. However, he did argue that the reservation designated for the Nisqually tribe was a rocky piece of high ground unsuited to growing food and cut off from access to the river that provided the mainstay of their livelihood, salmon.
In 1855, Leschi traveled to the territorial capital at Olympia
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
to protest the terms of the treaty. In October, Acting Governor Mason ordered that Leschi and his brother Quiemuth be taken into "protective custody" and sent the militia after them, thereby initiating the Puget Sound War
Puget Sound War
The Puget Sound War was an armed conflict that took place in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington in 1855–56, between the United States Military, local militias and members of the Native American tribes of the Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Puyallup, and Klickitat...
of 1855–1856. Leschi became war chief, in command of around 300 men, and led a small number of raids which panicked the white population. Early in the conflict, Territorial militiamen Abram Benton Moses and Joseph Miles (or Miller) were killed. Infuriated territorial authorities blamed the killings on Leschi, who remained at large for nearly a year. Convinced that white settlers were cooperating with Leschi, Stevens declared martial law over Pierce County on April 2, 1856.
Leschi was taken into custody in November 1856, and his brother Quiemuth turned himself in shortly thereafter. Quiemuth was murdered on November 18, 1856, by an unknown assailant, in Governor Stevens's office in Olympia, where he was being held for the night on his way to the jail at Fort Steilacoom
Fort Steilacoom
For the adjacent park, see Fort Steilacoom ParkFort Steilacoom was founded by the U.S. Army in 1849 near Lake Steilacoom. It was among the first military fortifications built by the U.S. north of the Columbia River in what was to become Washington...
, now in Lakewood, Washington
Lakewood, Washington
Lakewood is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 58,163 at the 2010 census.-History:Lakewood was officially incorporated on February 28, 1996. Historical names include Lakewood Center and Lakes District...
. Leschi himself was put on trial in 1858 for the murder of Colonel Moses, which he denied having committed. His first trial
Trial (law)
In law, a trial is when parties to a dispute come together to present information in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court...
resulted in a hung jury
Hung jury
A hung jury or deadlocked jury is a jury that cannot, by the required voting threshold, agree upon a verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is unable to change its votes due to severe differences of opinion.- England and Wales :...
because of the judge's instruction that killing of combatants during wartime did not constitute murder. He was convicted and sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
in a second trial in which this instruction was not given and his lawyers, Frank Clark and William Wallace, were not allowed to introduce potentially exonerating evidence.
One supporter, William Fraser Tolmie
William Fraser Tolmie
William Fraser Tolmie was a Canadian surgeon, fur trader, scientist, and politician....
, petitioned the new governor, LaFayette McMullen
LaFayette McMullen
LaFayette "Fayette" McMullen was a 19th century politician, driver, teamster and banker from the U.S. state of Virginia and Washington Territory....
, to pardon Leschi, but the governor refused. Another supporter, United States Army officer August Kautz
August Kautz
August Valentine Kautz was a German-American soldier and Union Army cavalry officer during the American Civil War. He was the author of several army manuals on duties and customs eventually adopted by the U.S. military.-Early life and career:Born in Ispringen, Baden, Germany, Kautz immigrated with...
, published two issues of a newspaper defending Leschi. Titled the Truth Teller, the newspaper's masthead stated: "Devoted to the Dissemination of Truth and the Suppression of Humbug." Tolmie's petition and the front page of the Truth Teller are reprinted in Ezra Meeker's 1905 history, The Tragedy of Leschi. Meeker was one of two who voted for acquittal on the first hung jury trial.
Execution
Leschi's execution was initially scheduled for January 22, 1858, but his supporters arranged an elaborate plot in which the Pierce County sheriff, George Williams, allowed himself to be arrested by sympathetic members of the United States Army rather than carry out the execution. On February 19, 1858, Leschi was hangedHanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in a small valley, from a hastily constructed gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
near Lake Steilacoom
Lake Steilacoom
Lake Steilacoom is a reservoir approximately 4 km southwest of Tacoma in Pierce County, Washington, United States. Its boundaries lie entirely within the city of Lakewood, Washington. The reservoir covers approximately , has a mean depth of and a maximum depth of...
, on land which later became a golf course and is now housing. There is a small monument nearby in strip mall in Lakewood. The hangman is reported to have later said "I felt then I was hanging an innocent man, and I believe it yet."
Legacy
Roughly three decades later, Frederick J. Grant named the Leschi neighborhoodLeschi, Seattle, Washington
Leschi is a neighborhood located within the city of Seattle, Washington, USA. The neighborhood is named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe.- Location :...
in Seattle after the chief in the late 1880s. Today, the neighborhood and its waterfront park
Leschi Park (Seattle)
Leschi Park is an 18.5 acre park in the Leschi neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe. The majority of the park is a grassy hillside that lies west of Lakeside Avenue S...
; schools in Seattle and Puyallup
Puyallup, Washington
Puyallup, Washington is a city in Pierce County, Washington about five miles east of Tacoma. The population was 37,022 at the 2010 Census. Named after the Puyallup Tribe of Native Americans, Puyallup means "the generous people."-History:...
; and streets in Seattle, Lakewood, Steilacoom
Steilacoom, Washington
Steilacoom is a town in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 5,985 at the 2010 census. Steilacoom is on the coast of Puget Sound, on a branch not visible on the map to the right...
, Anderson Island, and Olympia, bear his name. Additionally, the MOUT site at Joint Base Lewis-McChord
Joint Base Lewis-McChord
Joint Base Lewis-McChord is a United States military facility located south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington. The facility is under the jurisdiction of the United States Army Joint Base Garrison, Joint Base Lewis-McChord....
is named Leschi Town in his honor.
In March 2004, both houses of the Washington state legislature passed resolutions stating that Leschi was wrongly convicted and executed and asked the state supreme court to vacate Leschi's conviction. The court's chief justice, however, said that this was unlikely to happen, since it was not at all clear that the state court had jurisdiction in a matter decided 146 years earlier in a territorial court. On December 10, 2004, Chief Leschi was exonerated by a unanimous vote by a Historical Court of Inquiry following a definitive trial in absentia.
External links
- http://www.washingtonhistoryonline.org/leschi
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6697065/