MARCH, 1907

Henry L. Ye"ler,

Daughter of Old Chief Seattle

Tbere Is a popular mytb among old PugetSounders that old Angeline, the daugbter ofChief Seattle, aved the wblte settlers froma frtgbttul mAssaCre In tbe days of tbeearliest pioneering on Puget SOund. How­ever romantic this old leKend ma)' be Ithi not In aeconla.nce with the facu In thecase, Tbe legend referred to goes on torelate bow In the blackneu of mldnir;bt.

while the little city WBS surrounded byboroes of savage warriors, besmeared wltbwar palnt, thl. PrincelS8 Angeline forgotber OWD peril and ha.stened to the camp.J ofthe wblte men and gB\-e the wamlnK Cr)'that 8B\'ed moet of tbem from sure death.As a legend tbls story Is \'ery beautifUl andIt hu sen'ed many times to gh'e the poorold Indian woman food and clothing. Only

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a fe ..' months ago the cit)' council appointeda committee to Lalie care of her during thetime she was laid up wltb a broken arm.That was right and the city should do muchmore to care for this only remaining sur­,'h'or of the family or that great chief (romwhom tbe city or Seattle was named.

The facts in tbe case abo"e referred toBre that 191'0 meo ....ere killed by the Indiansat thai time and maoy othen would havebeen slaughtered but for the Interferenceor &Orne friendly Indians who kne..• all aboutthe 1,1808 of tbose Infernal red skins.

There .....as fighting among all the EasternWashington Indians at that Ume. and In facta general uprisIng among them. Col. G. O.Haller, of this city, was over there flghllol;"them wlUl United States t.roop8, and alROCol. Shaw with volunteers. The PuyallupIndians, under old Leshl, their cblef, andthe Duwamlsh Indians under Cblef Clarcum,became very angry over the dtstrlbutlon ofcertain propertr, and were dissatisfied gen·erally. About Cbristmas time of 1855 oldClaycum mustered his forces and went up toPu)'allup to enlist Leshi and bls men anda number of KllckhabJ to come down andfight tbe people of Seattle, In fact to wipethem out of existence.

The Information of tbese movements, In­stead of being bruugbt to tbe settlers byPrlncesa Angeline, of tbe legend. was ob­tained from Old Curly, tbe Indian to whommore credit Is due than to any other Indianthat ever liVed on Puget Sound. Poor OldCurly died about ten years ago.

This faithful old Indian was out In hiscanoe fishing one day wben be mel an old

Henry L.. l"eJller wall One Of the mOBt uBefulnnd bellt known of seattle pioneer.. It wallhe who built In Seattle In 18~2 the nut lIteam_ ...·mlll on Puget Sound. T ..o other mUlllhad preceded hlB but the}' WeN! both water­power mill... In early day" he "8Jl In partner­8hlp with Arthur A. ~nny In the general mer­chandl.... bu.dnellB. In IBto:or yellrll he wlllt linextensive Owner of bu"lne"a prOper!}', HI"quaint little home occupied Ihe corner whereIhe Pioneer bulldlnll;' nOw "tand". The old man"tttlnA' Ihere whittling wall" tllmillar ptctute10 all old ....ttlerll. The IItreet that rfln paalhlB aawmlll wa" called Mill "treet bUI BlnceIhen It haB been changed to Yellier a'·enue.He waa nO coward and during the Indian warot 18(,;;,1856 he took a "allant parL Knowing"II the (lelllila of Ihe war he ..... apealed h.tor lhe lrue BtOry of Angell~'lI JlupPOlJed aidIn 18811 Alexander Begg and Edmond 8. Meany:no.. profea80r of hlslOry In the Unh'uBlIy of"'."hlnKiOn. ...·ere editing ..nd publl.hlng IhePu~l Sound Mag:axine. Mr. )le.ny went toMr. \'e.l~r·. home and ""'n·ed. R. hili l<e<C-"=tflry...rlllne (10.-0 the word.. aa .poken. The"","".ult" ....l':N! &ppnwed. .od 1I1l1lll':d by Mr. "'""Ier.who took pride In .....ndlng copl... ot Ihe m..ga..Ine 10 hili friend. unlll • eo.lon editor 111'01lhe laB! COP}' a ...·ay from thl': old man. o"er"hlch he did not cease to ~e"e ..nd Jl:Tumble.Mr. Meany .ayed one COP), ..nd trom him ha.bl':en obl.lned. the prl,'lIege of reproducingIt here.-Edltor.

THE COAST

squaw on ber way to the Old Man House.the Il.Ilme of Chief Sealtle's reservation atrort Madison. This old &loaw told CurlYtbat Claycum and the Duwa.mlsb IndlaOllhad gone up to get Leabl and bls IndlaOll andsome KllckltalB, said to have been over bereat that time, and tbat tbey v.auld be backat tbe city In five days. Old Curl)' bastened10 my o(flce and reported tbl.ll fact and 1

Immedlatel)' reported to Captain Ganzev.orthof the Sloop-ot· ....ar Decatur, ....ho forthwithsent his marines ashore and guarded tbe cityevel"Y night for four nlgbts. Then he hada misunderstanding with Captain Lander,of the Seattle VolunteenJ, over the Questionof who sbould rank, lind withdrew hIs force-.This was tbe fourth nlgbt and as aoon asOld Curly found tbe guard was not out hecame to me again and remInded me thattbe fifth day bad not expired yet. Sborllyafter leaving me Old Curly came back again.He bad just seen a messenger from OldMose, a neutral Indian who lived on LakeWashington, back of tbe city, and who badseen tbe hostile Indians In their canoeslanding on this side of the lake. Curlyknew tbe Indians were back of the city allready for a fight. Most of our friendly In­dians ""ere corralled on the point south ofthe city, and early In tbe evening tv.'o boa­tile Indiana came over to these friendly In·dlans and sought to Incite them to help Inthe attack I went aboard the Decatur andreported to the captain the Information rgot from Curly. He Immediately sent hilimen asbore to re.eatabllsh tbe guard. Onthe ne.t mOrning the men were taken aboardthe sloop again and the two bOlltlle Indiansreturned to the brusb. Then It becamenoised about that the woods were fUll ofIndians, and the alarm became general. Aaa proof tbat Old Curly was sIncere, an Incl,dent bappened tbat might bere be related.In the bushes where the Occidental SquareIs now located, was a small wlg·wam oc·cupied by a shirtless Indian. known as CullllsJim, who had been over On the point andhad lesrned ot all tbe facta about tbe pro­posed attack. He ret.urned and related theclrct'mstances to his tolkll. A young Indianknown as Ruasel1 Sam was cooking hillbreakfast In Jim's camp and overheard allthat the latter had said. Jim warned hisfolks not to tell Old Curly, but tbe youngIndian left his fish tbat ..-as being roaate<lon a sharp stick, and bunted up Curly totell him all about It. And Curly as usualreponed to me and I again reported toCaptain Ganze..-Orth, ...·bo orde.red his menasbore agaln notwithstanding many of thembad bad DO sleep or tood atter a whole nlgbtof guard dnt.y.

MARCH, 1907

I 11''' reluctant to bave the men brougbtlUIbore this Ume and told the captain thatIt might only be a false alarm. The oldcaptain said be didn't care. He wouldratber bave twenty false alarms than becaught napping once. One reason why I was80 reluctant ",-as that early that same morn­Ing before It "'a8 known positively that tbeIndians were so near the city I was met b)'

Frank Mathias and young Bettman, whonow JIves In Olympia. These two accusedme of creatlng a seare. and tbey said thatOld Curly was no better than the otherrascally Indians. But the marines cameashore and wltb them the captain himself,Surgeon Jeffreys and Purser Jones. Theyalso brought a small howitzer. Purser Jonestook In the situation at once. but SurgeollJeffreYIl and many otbers were akeptlcaland poohed at the Idea of danger. The how.Itzer was placed In position, however, andafter the first shot was tired Into the woodsthere arose sllch .II. yell and a scramble thatthere was no longer any room tor doubt, Idistinctly remember being armed with II

Sharp's rUl.e ""hleb bad up to that time beenmy special prl~e: but when the red aklnsraJsed that awful yell I ral6ed m)' rifle topick ol!' one of the devils, but the thingwent off before I got It half ",'ay to myshoulder, and this same thing happened toalmost every man of the party. The Indiansreturned the tire and kept up the attackall Ihat day until 9 o'clock at night. Thenthey left for up the river and burned everysettler's house and barn as they wenL

About 8 o'clock that morning, after we hadbeen IIgbtlng for a short time, I returned tomy end of town and on m,. wa,. over I metFrank Mathias, who had been run out of theButler houae. where he had been eating hisbreakfast. by the Indians who literally per­forated the old house with bullets: Wltb nosmall amount of satisfacUon. I asked Frankwhat. be thongbt of the scare by tbat Ume.With a wild sort of a look he replied: "ByGeorge, they ARE bere, ain't the,.?" Andthen he rusbed for his cabin away from tbenylng bullets. All day we continued toIIgbt and the Decatur's guns conUnued toshell the Indians ambushed back of thecity. These shells were a source of con·sternatlon to the Indiana, They couldn'tunderstand the "Mox Pooh," or p.xp'aln theexplosion of the shell after It had been shOtat them.

Al> far as I can remember nobody "..asWOUnded but there were two men killed ontbat day, One of them ""as young Mr, Hoi·~te, a brother of Lemuel Holgate, ",'he was

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shot wbile standing In the door of the "blockhouse." The other ."as a young man whosename I have forgotten, He was standing onthe porcb of a botel then on the site no""occupied b)' the old Standard Theatre, andwsa sbot by some Indian sharp shooter.

Lieutenant Drake had a ven' narrow es­cape. While seated behind a large stumpa bullet wbl:tt.ed througb bls coat collarclose to his throat.

The dead and wounded on the aide ofthe enem)' has never been ascertained. Manybelieved that the Indians, as Is tbelr custom,carried off the dead and burled them sec·retly; but BOrne of the Indians who were Inthe fight asserted positively that not a singlered skin was hll and t.hat the nearest to Itwas Old Claycum. who lost a lock ot hlBshaggy hair by a bullet from some whiteman's rltle,

An Indian afterwards related an incidentthat bappened In the camp ot the Indiansduring their progress from Leshl's home toSeattle. Tbe soldiers from Fort Steilacoomwere supposed to have been in rapid pur­5uit, and the Indiana took every precautionto avoid a conflict with them. Lesbl's wifeaccompanied tbe part)', carrying ",'Ith ber ababy bo)'. The ebild was Irritable and criedmost of the time, Leshl feared tbese crieswould exp<J6e their whereabouts to thesoldlerl!l, 80 he sei:ted the baby and strangledit to dealb. This Incident was told to meby Indiana who knew what they were talkingabout.

Some time after Ihls battle Governor Stev·ens and Colonel Case)', ",'ho was then In com·mand at Fort Steilacoom, concluded tbalthe best and cheapest way to end the Indllnwar W88 to call In all the Indians and han~

the principal men antI. the murderers andliberate all the other". The Governor re­quested me to bring In tbe Indians. and T5ucceeded In doing so, and obtained amilleevidence agaln8t a number of tbe Indians tohang them. I gave this evidence to a mill,tary court martial. sppolnled for tbe purpose,and supposed of course that at least threeof the Indians would be banged. I remem­ber that I was so conndent that the rascalswould be hanged tbat I accepted a bet ofone dollar with Ira Woodin, ""ho said the)'wouldn't hang a man of them, and my die­gust can be Imagined ""hen at the close ofthe trial the matter ""as allm...ed to go b)'default, and I lost my bet. Being naturallyopposed to all forms of gambling, h01l'ever.I am In doubt as to 'A'bether that bet wasever paid or not.

HENRY L. YESLER.