Washington, Territory of (U.S.A.)
Substate | Defunct
1853 CE to 1889 CE
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The quarrels between the United States government and various indigenous peoples continue in Oregon and Washington Territories with the ongoing Cayuse War (1848-55), the Rogue River Wars (1855-56), and the Yakima Wars (1855-58); in Florida with the third Seminole War (1855-58); in the northern Plains with the Sioux; and in the Southwest with the Navaho and Apache War of 1860-65.
A group of prominent settlers from the Cowlitz and Puget Sound regions met on November 25, 1852, at the "Monticello Convention" in present-day Longview, to draft a petition to the United States Congress calling for a separate territory north of the Columbia River.
After gaining approval from the Oregon territorial government, the proposal was sent to the federal government.
The bill to establish the territory, H.R. 348, is reported in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Charles E. Stuart on January 25, 1853.
Representative Richard H. Stanton argued that the proposed name—the "Territory of Columbia"—might be confused for the District of Columbia, and suggested a name honoring George Washington instead.
The bill was thus amended with the name "Washington", though not without some debate, and passed in the House on February 10, passed in the Senate on March 2, and signed by President Millard Fillmore on the same day.
The argument against naming the territory Washington came from senator Alexander Evans of Maryland; he countered that while there were no states named Washington, multiple counties, cities, and towns were named such and could be the source of confusion itself.
Evans felt that the proposed new territory's name should reflect local native terminology.
He stated it would be more appropriate to give the territory "some beautiful Indian name".
The decision was contrary to the wishes of residents, and local papers reported mixed feeling from citizens, though the general reception of the renaming was positive.
The first plat for Seattle, Washington is laid out on May 23, 1853.
Archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least four thousand years.
By the time the first European settlers arrive, the people (subsequently called the Duwamish tribe) occupy at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay.
The first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest.
In 1851, a large party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River; they formally claimed it on September 14, 1851.
Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party.
Members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28, 1851.
The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon, and landed on Alki point during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851.
After a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps.
Charles Terry and John Low remain at the original landing location and reestablish their old land claim and call it "New York," but renamed "New York Alki" in April 1853, from a Chinook word meaning, roughly, "by and by" or "someday."
For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps will compete for dominance, but in time Alki will be abandoned and its residents will move across the bay to join the rest of the settlers.
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, is the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Seattle ("Seattle") of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes.
The name "Seattle" appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23, 1853, when the first plats for the village are filed.
Stevens is also integral in the drafting and negotiation of treaties with native bands in the Washington Territory.
The site of Olympia has been home to Lushootseed-speaking peoples known as the Steh-Chass (or Stehchass; who became part of the post-treaty Squaxin Island Tribe) for thousands of years.
Other natives regularly visit the head of Budd Inlet and the Steh-Chass including the other ancestor tribes of the Squaxin, as well as the Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish.
The first recorded Europeans came to Olympia in 1792.
Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition are said to have explored the site, but neither recorded any encounters with the resident Indigenous population here.
In 1846, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia.
In 1851, the U.S. Congress established the Customs District of Puget Sound for Washington Territory and Olympia became the home of the customs house.
Its population has steadily expanded from Oregon Trail immigrants.
In 1850, the town settled on the name Olympia, at the suggestion of local resident Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, due to its view of the Olympic Mountains to the Northwest.
The area has begun to be served by a small fleet of steamboats known as the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.
It also includes a section that, at least as interpreted by United States officials, requires the Native American signatories to move to one of three reservations.
Doing so will effectively force the Nisqually people to cede their prime farming and living space.
One of the leaders of the Nisqually, Chief Leschi, outraged, refuses to give up ownership of this land and instead fights for his peoples' right to their territory, sparking the beginning of the Puget sound War, which will end in the controversial execution of Leschi.
Governor of Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens, had convened the treaty council on January 25, with the S'Klallam, the Chimakum, and the Skokomish tribes.
Under the terms of the treaty, the original inhabitants of northern Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Peninsula are to cede ownership of their land in exchange for small reservations along Hood Canal and a payment of sixty thousand dollars from the federal government.
The treaty requires the natives to trade only with the United States, to free all their slaves, and it abjures them not to acquire any new slaves.
Signatories include Isaac Stevens, superintendent of Indian affairs and governor of Washington Territory, and representatives of the Quinault and Quileute, as well as the Hoh tribe, which is considered a subset of the Quileutes.
The Quinault Indian Reservation is established under the terms of the treaty.
Indian signatories include the Quinault Head Chief Taholah and Sub-chiefs Wah-kee-nah, Yer-ay-let'l, and Kne-she-guartsh, the Quileute Head Chief How-yat'l and Sub-chiefs Kal-lape, Tah-ah-ha-wht'l, along with other tribal delegates.
At this time, Seattle is a settlement in the Washington Territory that had recently named itself after Chief Seattle (Sealth), a leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples of central Puget Sound.
Backed by artillery fire and supported by Marines from the United States Navy sloop-of-war Decatur, anchored in Elliott Bay (Seattle's harbor, at this time called Duwam-sh Bay), the settlers suffer only two deaths.
It is not known if any of the Native raiders died, though the historian Lieutenant Thomsas Stowe Phelps, an eyewitness, will write that they later "would admit" to twenty-eight dead and eighty wounded.
The battle, part of the multi-year Puget Sound War or Yakima War, lasts a single day.
The city of Olympia is incorporated in the Washington Territory on January 28, 1859.
The site of Olympia has been home to Lushootseed-speaking peoples known as the Steh-Chass (or Stehchass; who became part of the post-treaty Squaxin Island Tribe) for thousands of years.
Other natives regularly visited the head of Budd Inlet and the Steh-Chass including the other ancestor tribes of the Squaxin, as well as the Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish.
The first recorded Europeans came to Olympia in 1792.
Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition are said to have explored the site, but neither recorded any encounters with the resident Indigenous population here.
In 1846, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly had claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia.
In 1851, the U.S. Congress established the Customs District of Puget Sound for Washington Territory and Olympia became the home of the customs house. Its population steadily expanded from Oregon Trail immigrants.
In 1850, the town settled on the name Olympia, at the suggestion of local resident Colonel Isaac N. Ebey, due to its view of the Olympic Mountains to the Northwest.
The area had begun to be served by a small fleet of steamboats known as the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.