Living Law,
Living LandSupport land rights

Violation

Treaty of Medicine Creek (1854): small reservations, the Nisqually War, Leschi, and the Puyallup claims

Not yet reviewed by this nation. What follows comes from public records and research. It does not speak for the nation.

Medicine Creek treaty (1854) promised reservations, payments and fishing rights; reservations were seen as too small, war followed, and Leschi was hanged.

Treaty
Treaty of Medicine Creek, 10 Stat. 1132
Nations
Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Squaxin Island and other Puget Sound bands
When
1854-1990
Land affected
About 2.24 million acres; riverine access; allotments.
Legal aftermath
Settlement (1989-90) rather than restoration. Fishing right litigated in V052.

What happened

Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens negotiated the Treaty of Medicine Creek with several Puget Sound peoples, including the Nisqually and Puyallup. The tribes ceded land by boundary description. They received reserved tracts, such as "a square tract containing two sections, or twelve hundred and eighty acres," and $32,500. Article 3 secured "The right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations."

The reservations were widely seen as inadequate. HistoryLink says Nisqually leader Leschi was "Outraged by the inadequate reservation imposed by the treaty." HistoryLink says historical evidence indicates not all those named in the treaty actually signed, largely because they objected to the inadequate reservations. A war followed. The government later set up "New and significantly larger Puyallup and Nisqually reservations" in 1857.

Leschi was convicted of murder after two trials and "hanged at Steilacoom" on February 19, 1858. In 2004 "a specially formed historical court exonerated Chief Leschi of the crime for which he was executed."

Good to know. Whether everyone named in the treaty, including Leschi, actually signed it is disputed.

Summarized with AI assistance from 2 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error

What the sources say, and how this was checked

Well supported by the sources below.

  1. The right of taking fish, at all usual and accustomed grounds and stations, is further securedTreaty of Medicine Creek, 1854 (HistoryLink)
  2. a specially formed historical court exonerated Chief Leschi of the crime for which he was executedLeschi (1808-1858), Part 1 (HistoryLink)

Research notes. Corrections to input: sources say it is disputed whether Leschi actually signed, not that he signed; the 2.24 million acre cession figure and the '62 signers' count were not confirmed and are omitted; the input's note that the installments total $32,250 was not checked. HistoryLink's treaty essay does not number the cession in acres. The Puyallup land losses and the 1989 Puyallup settlement act were not verified. The war description is brief; how 'how' is classed is a judgment call.

Treaty under documented pressureShapes from the 1899 federal record: approximate, not legal boundaries.

Who is doing the work

This history belongs to living nations. Start with them:

Working with these nations

Native legal and land defense, nationally

Gifts go straight to each organization; this atlas takes nothing. Listing is not endorsement: how organizations are listed.

Connections

These links were matched automatically by name or date and have not yet been reviewed by a person.

Nations named 3

Taken to court in 1

Policy era 1

Land returns that respond to this 1

Concerns the instrument 1

Sources

  1. historylink.org/file/21193unclassified
  2. historylink.org/file/20157unclassified
  3. treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-nisqualli-puyallup-etc-1854-0661reference work
  4. govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-103/pdf/STATUTE-103-Pg83.pdfprimary record
The record’s fields
What happened
Treaty of Medicine Creek (1854): small reservations, the Nisqually War, Leschi, and the Puyallup claims -- Gov. Isaac Stevens and 62 leaders signed on Dec. 26, 1854 (ratified Mar. 3, 1855; proclaimed Apr. 10, 1855); the tribes ceded about 2.24 million acres for reservations of about two sections each (e.g., two 1,280-acre tracts plus Klah-che-min Island), $32,500 over 20 years (Art. 4 schedule runs 20 years; the itemized installments sum to $32,250, which is $250 below the stated total), and the Article 3 right of taking fish at 'all usual and accustomed grounds and stations' in common with citizens. Nisqually leader Leschi protested that the reservation was forested, rocky, unsuited to farming and had no access to the Nisqually River; he led resistance in the 1855-56 war, was arrested on a murder charge, hanged at Steilacoom on Feb. 19, 1858, and exonerated by a historical court in 2004. Reservations were enlarged in January 1857. The Puyallup lost most of their allotted reservation land through questionable transactions; the Puyallup Tribe of Indians Settlement Act of 1989 (Pub. L. 101-41) ratified a settlement worth about $162 million in total, including trust lands in the Tacoma tideflats (a few hundred acres, per the act's listing), a $22 million trust fund and $10 million for economic development and land, in return for the Tribe relinquishing claims to roughly 20,000 acres in the Tacoma area.
Acreage
2.24 million acres ceded (Wikipedia, 'Treaty of Medicine Creek'); HistoryLink essay 21193 instead says about 3,960 square miles (about 2.53 million acres); the treaty text gives no acreage; Puyallup claim of more than 20,000 acres relinquished in 1989-90
Kind
Violation
Confidence
High
Nation review
Not yet reviewed by this nation
Notes
  • Some details are disputed

Correct this record