The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-09-11
METROPOLIS OF SIWASHES.
Tacoma Was Chief Indian City in Ages
Past. Saws Curator.

Curator Gflstrap.. Of the Ferry Museum,
says a dispatch to the Seattle Post Intel
~ligencer from Tacoma, after a long series
of Investigations in shell heaps at the
mouth of the Puyallup River, announces
that for at least 7e0 or 800 years prior TO
the coming Of h White man to the North
west, the head Of the bay hit Tacoma was
the aboriginal metropolis of Puget SOUND.
He says the spot was the general trystlng
place of all the tribes of the sound region
and also Of visiting warriors and their
families from east of the Cascades.
Mr.. Gilstrap has found shell heaps near
where the present Puyallup Indian reser-
.vation school stands that are slightly over
six feet deep. On top of these heaps are
growing fir trees three feet in thickness
Digging down into these heaps he has
found Indian Implements made of elk horn
and stone, showing a great antiquity.
Mr.. Gilstrap believes that fine site Of
these old gatherings Of the Indians make
the head of the bay the richest and most
promising locality in the Puget Sound
region for Investigation into the history
of the red race in the Northwest.
ct is easy to puDye,' said Mr.. Gilstrap,
that Commencement Bay has been the
metropolis of the Indians of the North
west for a thousand years. The depth of
the she'll heaps are conclusive evidence. as
are also the extensive burying grounds on
the Puyallup reservation.
"Further. there Is no better place on the
sound for fishing than the Narrows, ana
CLAIMS abound all along the beaches IN
this locality. These alone were attractive
features to the Indians, but in addition
there were the extensive p~rairles, covers1
with tall grass, south of and reaehlng a.
most dove to>the bay. Elk and deer IN
enormous numbers had their homes en-
these plains, and made a. hunters paraulse
forfthe Indians. In no part OF the souhu
Is there ANYTHING tfat begins to compare
/ xnffthM fharn nrofrfpr for extent oil area afO
| adaptability TO game purposes
.'The Indians OF the Northwest did not
lie the thick forests which we ma N
they only hunted along the shores, Of the
Sound, never venturing far inland; There
snperstitions peopled the woods with
therefore. how much they appreciated the
open p~rairies, dotted with occasional
groves of balsam and jack oaks and
Astounding in game.
s'rhe Hudson Bay people took the same
view of It, and when they came, estab-
The Nisqually. the stuck and the Puyallup
River Valleys. in this locality, also multi
kplicd many times the game and posi-
Utilities. Taking the fish and CLANS on
Commencement Bay and the game and
open county at hand, the Indians found
ideal conditions for, savage existence, such
as were to be had nowhere else in this
n have Investigated shell heaps in many
places on the Sound. and studied the local
tiles surrounding them, and the more I DC
so the more ] ana convinced that the head
of this bay has been the common gather
ling spot of the wandering red men from
time i~mmemorial. The shell heaps at
Springfield, for instance, are interesting,
showing a great antiquity. bnt In no way
comparing with our extensive she'll heaps
at the mouth Of the Puyallup River.
y Is very hard to run back over the
like the people of the stone age. lie
never built anything that would stand a
year. you might say, after he was dead.
Their traditions suffered so many changes
that they amopnt to Nnothipg. For These
reasons their burying grounds, their shell
heaps. and the primitive game conditions
81 q loeality are the best sources Of In
formation as to what took place in that
locality during past ages