The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-05-31
PUGET SOUND INDIANS.
How Seattle's Cunning Saved Them frou
Destruction.


| Destruction.
The last man bearing the name OF
Seattle died few days ago at the Old
| Man House, near Port Madison. John
Seattle was the last of old Seattle's
sons, Angelina, the old chiefs daughter.
being now the only surviving child. II
has not been generally known how
Seattle became a chief S. +. Coombs
says that while calling on old Seattle.
at the Old Man House, he learned the
following regarding that old gentle
mans early history and why he had
! been a chief:
1t seems long before any white people
had settled on Puget Sound, and about
the time the Hudson Bay Company were
establishing their posts in the North
west, the Indians living on the Upper
White river and the mountain Indians
had banded together to make a fight on
the Puget Sound tribes. or those known
as the Old Man House tribe. Word
reached them that a force of those
mountain Indians were about to
start in canoes from Upper Green
and White rivers in such num-
bers and so we'll armed that if
they reached Duwamish, now Elliott
Bay, the Old Man House tribe would be
wiped out. A council of the old and
wise ones gathered, and Seattle, then a
young man not over twenty, volunteered
and devised plan to check the enemy
in reaching salt water. All of the rude
instruments in the shape of axes were
called for. They left Elliott Bay by
canoes and by trail, Seattle heading
the expedition.
A short distance above the mouth Of
Black river, on White river, the bluffs
came so close together that fir trees
chopped down on one side would reach
the bank on the opposite side. 1t was
at this point that Seattle commenced
telling trees. By dark these trees were
stretched across the river and so ar
ranged that canoe could not go under
without first upsetting. Seattle had his
men ambuShed on either side, with their
and arrows Seattle did not have to
wait long after dark before the noun
tain Indians came padding down, and
before those behind could know what
was the matter in front some five or six
large canoes with over enc hundred
warriors were struggling in the water,
and many who reached the shore were
soon dispatched by Seattle's Flatheads.
The remaining canoes that were checked
before getting under the obstruction
were turned back, and the plot to clean
out the Puget Sound clam-eaters was
frustrated, and young Seattle was de-
clared chief of the Old Man House tribe,
which then comprised all the Indians
between Algi Point and above Skagit
Head on Puget Sound.
Old man Seattle never learned the
Chinook iargon Always, when giving
white people information he had an in
terpreter. Old Seattle must have been
past ninety at his death.
Mr.. Coombs says that when he ar
rived at Port Madison, over thirty years
ago, the big logs and posts they rest on
at the Old Man House were great won
der to all. The logs reaching across
from one post to another must have
boon 100 foot long. and many OF thenn 3
feet at the butt end, about y to feet
at the smaller end. These logs, no
doubt, were placed in position without
the aid of any gear, purchase or ma
chinery. Old man Seattle could not in
form us when they were first erected.
He said the new cedar posts were re-
placed in the ground from time to time
as the old ones became decayed. Seat
tie Wash Press.