Isaac Stevens, sent West to be Washington State’s 1st Territorial Govenor, hustled about the region “force signing” treaties with Native Americans who neither understood English nor could write.  150 years later Judge Bolt held the State to Steven’s boilerplate document (February 1974) that promised protein and fat sources to the tribes via fishing and hunting rights.  It did not include carbohydrates and vitamins gathered from community forest glades and groves, often on sites amenable for living (strategically safe, mosquito free, etc.) much coveted by the Pioneers.  They lost their Yampah and Camas fields, their Wapato marshes, their oak (Nisqually) and crabapple groves.  Stevens was young, 37; his “playbook” (and he) were from the East where this DC song had been sung many times with indigenous peoples. … as start, use an island to “concentrate” their mental focus.  In the Washington Territory, it was Fox Island, in Oregon, Sauvie, in Minnesota, Pike, etc.   What was lost in the Northwest were their forest glades and groves (for those who did not starve to death).  Shown above is Fox Island (by Tacoma, no photo of their encampment found) and below, the Lakota Sioux’s Minneapolis-St Paul’s winter residence.

Click to access Reservations-before-the-Civil-War.pdf

htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Island,_Washingtonhttps://chronline.com/stories/julie-mcdonald-commentary-white-settlers-flee-to-blockhouses-during-indian-wars,300549
htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Island,_Washington
https://archives.lib.state.ma.us/bitstream/handle/2452/838189/ocm40504899.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Native Americans and the Pioneers/Explorers views differed on:

The Existence of God
Air, Wind, & Water Ownership
Land Ownership

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