Chief Leschi

Remembering Chief Leschi’s legacy

By John Larson

The year 2008 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Leschi, a great leader admired by Natives and non-Natives alike around the Puget Sound.

Leschi was born in 1808 near what is now Eatonville. His father was a Nisqually and his mother was a Yakama.

White settlers arrived in the Northwest in increasing numbers throughout Leschi’s lifetime.

Eventually Washington Territory was established, with Isaac Stevens as its governor. Isaac Stevens wanted an agreement between the government and local tribes, which led to the Medicine Creek Treaty. The document, which was signed Dec. 26, 1854, ceded much of the land in the Puget Sound region to the United States. In return, land was set aside for the tribes of the region in the form of reservations.

The historical record remains unclear as to whether Leschi actually signed the treaty. Many contend that the X that appears next to his name was not placed there by him. Others contend that he did sign but did so under protest.

It is known that Leschi argued that the reservation set aside for the Nisqually Tribe was unsuitable as it was on rock land on high ground. The two-square-acre parcel did not have access to the Nisqually River, cutting off his people from salmon, a mainstay of their diet.

The next year Leschi traveled to the territorial capital of Olympia to protest the terms of the treaty, but his concerns were dismissed.

In October 1855 acting Governor Charles H. Mason ordered Leschi and his brother Quiemuth be taken into custody. He sent a militia after the two men, an action that sparked the Puget Sound War of 1855-56.

Leschi became a war chief, leading about 300 troops against the United States government. Early in the conflict two territorial militiamen men were killed in a skirmish. Leschi was accused of murder in the death of one of the men, Abram Benton Moses.

Leschi’s nephew, Sluggia, turned him in to authorities in order to collect an award out for his capture.

Leschi denied he was in the area at the time when Abram Moses was killed. Many observers, both back then and today, feel that Abram Moses was killed in battle and thus his death was not murder but a death of a soldier in conflict.

Leschi’s first trial in 1858 resulted in a hung jury. He was convicted and sentenced to death during a second trial.

His supporters included Army officer August Kautz, who published newspaper editorial defending Leschi. New Governor LaFayette McMullen was petitioned to dismiss the charges.

Leschi was hanged on Feb. 19, 1858 in a field in what is today Lakewood.

About three decades later a neighborhood in Seattle was named after Leschi. Streets in cities around Puget Sound bear his name. Chief Leschi School is named after the great Native leader.

Many people felt the conviction and hanging of Leschi was an injustice, a feeling shared by Natives as well as many non-natives.

In 1895 Leschi was reburied on tribal land. The ceremony was attended by around 1,000 people. Ezra Meeker, one of the more prominent white settlers and a jury member who voted to acquit Leschi in 1858, chartered a train to bring people to the reburial.

Those feelings and a sense that Leschi deserved to have his name cleared led to both houses of the Washington State Legislature to pass resolutions in March 2004 stating that he was wrongly convicted. Those resolutions requested the state supreme court to overturn the conviction. The chief justice responded that this could be difficult from a legal perspective, as it was unclear exactly what jurisdiction a state court could have over a decision made by a territorial court 146 years earlier.

Instead, a historical court of inquiry was convened. It consisted of seven current or former members of the supreme court.

It held a hearing at Washington State History Museum on Dec. 10, 2004 in an auditorium packed with many Leschi supporters from the Nisqually, Puyallup and other local tribes. After hearing the evidence, the court voted unanimously to exonerate Leschi.

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