The bitter waters of Medicine Creek

the long version

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.