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Loading... The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek: A Tragic Clash Between White and Native Americaby Richard Kluger
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. As a transplant to western Washington, I followed the news of the historical court which considered the 150 year old case against Leschi, a Nisqually Indian leader who organized resistance to an unjust treaty. Kluger's narrative, based on very thoroughgoing research, covers the background, principal actors, and aftermath of the trial and conviction of Leschi, while making the case for his exoneration. Kluger doesn't stop there, but summarizes the subsequent history of the Nisquallys before relating the events leading to a joint resolution urging some kind of judicial exoneration of Kleschi and the successful effort to reconsider the case before a specially convened court. no reviews | add a review
History.
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HTML:The riveting story of a dramatic confrontation between Native Americans and white settlers, a compelling conflict that unfolded in the newly created Washington Territory from 1853 to 1857. When appointed Washingtonâ??s first governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, an ambitious military man turned politician, 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, a tragic episode of frontier oppression and injustice. With his trademark empathy and scholarly acuity, Pulitzer Prizeâ??winner Richard Kluger recounts the impact of Stevensâ??s program on the Nisqually tribe, whose chief, Leschi, sparked the native resistance movement. Stevens was determined to succeed at any cost: his hasty treaty negotiations with the Indians, marked by deceit, threat, and misrepresentation, inflamed his opponents. Leschi, resolved to save more than a few patches of his peopleâ??s lush homelands, unwittingly turned his tribeâ??and himself most of allâ??into victims of the governorâ??s relentless wrath. The conflict between these two complicated and driven menâ??and their supportersâ??explosively and enormously at odds with each other, was to have echoes far into the future. Closely considered and eloquently written, The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek is a bold and long-overdue clarification of the historical record of an American tragedy, presenting, through the experiences of one tribe, the history of Native Americ No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)979.7004History and Geography North America Great Basin and West Coast U.S. WashingtonLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The book wraps up the Leschi tale with a "historical trial" which found that Leschi should not have been tried as a civilian and hanged; but as a combatant in wartime should have been released when the nations were at peace. Finally, the book describes the current state of Nisqually tribal affairs, and their long-awaited hope for a future less desolate than their past under the white empire.
I'm rounding up from 4.25 stars, because this story needs to be told. It's slow and plodding at times, with a dry names-and-dates feel in early chapters, but the story itself is full of twists, turns and intrigue. ( )