Transcripts For CSPAN C-SPAN Cities Tour In Tacoma Washington Part 2 20170901

Our cities tour visits tacoma, washington, to learn more about its unique history and literary life. For six years, we have traveled to u. S. Cities, bringing the literary scene and Historic Sites to our viewers. You can read more at cspan. Org citiestour. Years before the arrival of the Transcontinental Railroad, tacoma was not dissimilar from most of the other small communities around puget sound, and really in the Pacific Northwest. The population presence was predominantly native american. By the end of the 19th century, coming over the oregon trail and some by sea, small little villages really of europeans had theved, that mostly along shoreline, and that was because the primary purpose here for people settling was cutting timber and milling timber that was then sent down to San Francisco. That prompted a lot of entrepreneurs and small investors and adventurers to come up and begin to build cities. So, seattle, bellingham, wereetown, olympia all ofll, smallish communities 50 to a few hundred people, really, prior to the coming of the transcontinental. At the conclusion of the civil war and the announcement that the railroad was coming, every hoped that they would be the terminal city, that they would be chosen for the railroad. It came down to really being seattle, tacoma, and olympia. 1873, the transcontinental obviously was being built in two directions. It did not just have one railhead. , congress,ision was in the charter for the railroad, had dictated that the section between the river and puget sound needed to be completed, and the Railroad Company needed to bring steam engines by december of 1873. , the trackshat year ,ad been laid from the columbia and in july of that year, all the time the railroad had been entertaining offers from various communities cash, land, port facilities, whatever a community could put together to lower the railroad there lure the railroad there. In july, the final decision between seattle and tacoma was made, and tacoma was selected. , the choice city for the conclusion of the line was set up to not only be an arrival point for goods and theelers, but also for arrival of the telegraph, which muse and banking and communication. The course of the Transcontinental Railroad at the end of the 19th century was a big deal for the far west. The reason tacoma was picked by mp, there are a multitude of reasons, but primarily it is a perfect partner, especially for sailing vessels. But even today, it is an ideal harbor. , lots of areaor harfs. Nearby solid ground which would carry the weight of freight and railroads. You would be able to load goods often on the ships. That was part of it. Another reason was the railroad was built on land grants. The federal government basically divided the whole route into squaremile blocks, and surveyed , like athe railroad checkerboard, got every other parcel as payment for visiting the railroads. In seattle, most of seattle had already been state claimed and was owned by the residents of seattle. Tacoma, a much smaller population. The railroad came here because they could literally on the city, and indeed they did. When they arrived here and thats part of tacomas first half of its life. The railroad came in and they can to profit off the sale of land within the city. Land, which forest was practically valueless when trees were cut, to real estate that they could profit off of. They brought with them and they were able to turn around and profit from it. We see that today too, because not only did the railroad owned the land and thereby known the terms by which they would sell the land if somebody wanted to build a building or whatever, ehouse, but in the or ehouse, but or a you very much sense that today here on the campus. These sturdy brick warehouses were all built under the guidelines that were imposed by the railroad. So the builders of the ,arehouses would meet the term the cash terms to buy the land from the railroad but the railroad dictated the design, the construction method of the buildings themselves. So all these warehouses, these sturdy fireproof warehouses are thepretty much the idea, forced building standards the railroad had. 1930s, and into the 1940s, the neighborhood began to receive a little bit as the automobile took over and passenger traffic by rail faded away. Warehouses still remained in operation that as the court modernized, a lot of the big warehouses and hardware, all the goods that came and went moved out into the industrial port area. Became almostne forgotten in a way. It was still utility, it was still used but not appreciated or understood. After the Second World War, it serviceeven passenger largely stopped. Last acid or service stop traveling. By the 1990s, the city itself began to go through a real revival and because of the sturdy wellbuilt infrastructure , the built environment, the recovery of the city largely happened around the reuse of the Historic Holdings that were already here. It was during that time that people began to realize, wait a minute, the origin of the city is still intact, it is still here and it is still functioning. The 1990s, and into the current century after 2000, the theus launched university of washington launched the campus. They moved to the Warehouse District to begin buying up the old empty warehouses and building a modernday campus. About 2010,ago, with the expansion of the library, for the first time, people began to talk about intruding on the 80 foot rightofway of the parry line very line. There was conversation and building out the campus and meeting its needs that they would start to encroach and then the 80y remembered that foot rightofway is where everything started and the University Made a very courageous decision to keep the rightofway as open space, to keep the loading docks is covered pedestrian ways and to keep as much as they could of the language of the railroads still intact and today, the prairie lion as you see it although it has been hard forped and modernized campus use, for pedestrian use, because real do not use it anymore, it is now this linear central open space of the campus. For people coming here, they do not just enjoy a modern campus. They get a very authentic look to,he narrative of not just to, but a chapter of history. Clicks this is a perfect setting to tell this type of story because too often this kind of public spaces just about the aesthetics. It is just about enjoying the Natural Beauty that is all around puget sound. It is important to point out to people the history of this place and the complicated history and thiswent into founding beautiful place, these are part of the same story. The fact youre able to enjoy this you have to understand why youre here and enjoying this part of tacoma. In the early 1880s there started to be a growing sense of antichinese sentiment. In the 1870s, they were able to get by. The conflict was not as obvious but at the beginning of 1880s there were a series of antichinese incident that happened in other parts of the u. S. And there was as palpable sense it was coming up here. It was driven by complaints by officials and other residents in washington territory that the chinese exclusion act as a have were chinese who are coming through canada and so you get the sense that there was something brewing here. Offebruary of 1885, a group tacoma leaders including the mayor, himself a german immigrant had a meeting at wise box grocery. The came up with ideas of how to deal with population. Something had happened in california, in eureka, northern california, they had expelled their chinese population and there were some residents who were there when it happened and they are coming into that meeting saying maybe there is a way that we could also expel our community so that is how it just that is how it happened. And in the following months, there was this into Chinese Congress that was led by leaders in seattle and tacoma led that would lead meet here occasionally in seattle and the wood, with these plans that came crystallized. Everything went into motion starting in september. Rock springs the massacre happened where 28 chinese miners were murdered by white miners in the area and that set off a chain of events in september happening here in washington territory, there were these isolated incidents of issaquah, chinese in black diamond, in new castle, this growing antagonism against the Chinese Community. What happened was the antiChinese Congress met at the end of september led by Jacob Weisberg and put this plan into motion. When you see our plan saying the chinese population of western Washington News to be out of here by november 1, they set a deadline. That is what happened. In terms of what happened the day of, the november 1 deadline passed and the majority of the population left the city in fear. There were about 500 to 700 chinese people, i the day of the expulsion that were 200. November 3, that is when the expulsion happened. What happened was a mob that was composed of 200 people and swelled to about 500 white to commons went up and down the Chinese Community house by house expelling them. That tried toon fight back or question what was happening, there were instances where it became violent and they were forcefully expelled. You had that month going through the city lining up all the chinese and once they had the mall, the chinese residents were forced to march to the lake train station several miles south to get on a train to go to portland. After the expulsion, there was a legal case to be made, what you going to do to the people that led this act that was clearly illegal . They rounded up 27 of the leaders who became known as the tacoma 27 and it was a hodgepodge of people. You had some of the most , like themembers mayor and others who were workingclass residents. So they were rounded up but they were never brought to trial. Of legal technicalities happened and they were never brought to just and they were free to go back and they were hailed as heroes in the city and there was no legal consequence for what happened. Government issued a lump sum payment of a quarter Million Dollars to the Chinese Government for a series of antichinese incidents including the tacoma expulsion but there is very little in the way of justice in terms of what happened afterwards. The Chinese Community following the expulsion of 1885 was largely nonexistent for decades. It became known as his area that was inherently and hospitable to chinese immigrants. It was not till the mid20th country that you see concerted numbers of Chinese Americans moving into tacoma again and that was because of the legal system. The exclusion act was held into place until world war ii. That is what you do not see a Chinese Community and that is why there was very little in terms of remembrance of the events up until the 1990s. It was a century without any public acknowledgment from the city that this happened. The plans to build chinese reconciliation part were announced in the 1990s through a series of agreements which included a formal apology by the city, the city council for the expulsion. The park wrote ground in 2005 and the first phase was completed in 2010. There are two more phases that are yet to be built that when visitors come to the park what they see is it overlooks this youthful part of tacoma which is commencement bay. You are walking through this walkway and a bridge that leads to this chinese pavilion, the centerpiece of the part. That was constructed in china in one of our sister cities and put together here. That is what visitors can do, they can walk through the park and see different plaques that explain where the chinese 3g used to live and what happened during the expulsion. When people come into the part, a walk away with an understanding that this is a city with a complex history. It is not just this pretty little town next to the water. It has a competition immigrant history like other towns in the American West area and when you look at tacoma it is not that way by accident, overwhelmingly white. Whether we are talking about the displacement of and a generous peoples or the chinese, about the redlining of africanamerican trinitys where they could only live in certain parts of the city, theres a reason the city looks the way it does and this story is an important part of that. That is what visitors take a small part of when they walk away. The area we are standing right now is in the southern section of puget sound which is the Washington State in the Pacific Northwest great inland water. When the Transcontinental Railroad came there was talk about one day being able to spend puget sound. It was not an undertaking anyone was prepared to do. During the depression federal programs like the building of the grand cooley down, that would projects happening. Mid1930s there began to be talk about creating a bridge over puget sound to reach from tacoma to the Kitsap Peninsula. Opened july 1 in 1940 after two years of construction. The tacoma narrows is also a bit of a wind tunnel. People working on the deck again to notice movement. And almost like airplane wing lift in the bridge. Movement theytal began to feel a vertical lift in the bridge, especially in the center stand area is center stand. There was no suspension bridge anything like this anywhere in anywhere of the world in the Pacific Northwest. There was an unfamiliarity with how a big thing like this was supposed to behave so people excited about it, there is a certain musical gracefulness about a bridge like this so people just wanted to think it was not anything wrong, that it was normal and once they get the concrete down they thought it would go away. As we went out of summer and began to get into fall and the winds except a little bit, the prevailing wind out of the southwest was those almost or the on across the bridge deck, they began to notice that there was an undulation in the deck. By fall, soldiers were coming out from the military base for the novelty of writing the bridge so they would go out and kick their feet over the railing and stand on the outside of the ridge and lean out as far as they could and the center deck would be rising not just inches but feet. To a point where the undulation was so severe that to automobiles, trucks and an automobile coming in opposite directions, the headlights of the vehicle coming at you would disappear under the rolling hill of the deck. For conservative people, something was horribly wrong from the beginning. For a community that was proud of their new bridge, for the many people that anticipated in building the bridge, it was unthinkable that this was wrong. The engineers began to work on the idea of some stiffening of the bridge. They thought that the railings on the side could be converted into deep ibeams and that would at some rigidity. Minor structural additions, modifications were implemented or about to be implemented as we got through october 1940. Only fournovember, months, four and a half months after the bridge had been completed, the weather began to shift into its winter pattern. That was the bellwether of what was about to happen on the morning of november 7, though winds picked up to 40 miles an hour and they were fiercely directed at the site of the overe as if the wind comes the wing on an airplane. And instead of the normal undulation of the bridge, the deck again to twist, began to turn, and everybody noticed immediately that had been watching the bridge that that was a behavior people had not noticed before. Of then the morning seventh, there were hundreds of not thousands of people that had come out on both sides of the bridge to be able to start to watch what was happening, to start to us this behavior. The bridge keepers, it was a toll bridge so the bridge keepers had decided they would close the bridge, this was wrong and it was not safe anymore. Just not an action that should happen with an inanimate object of the size. One last car was coming across thebridge even though access to the bridge had been shut off, there was one last car coming across, a man with coming from his summer home on Kitsap Peninsula headed toward tacoma. He had a cocker spaniel with him in the car. By the time he got to the most severely moving part of the bridge deck he could not control the automobile. So the car swung and screeched around and ended up diagonally across both lanes on the bridge and he jumped out and ran and got off the bridge. Minutes,ext 30 or 40 the bridge when into a Violent Movement that no one had seen before. And all the crowds on both sides closed in to watch. There was i think everyone started to suspect that the impossible was about to happen, that the bridge was going to give it up, was going to fail. ,ith no one on the bridge strangely enough, a University Professor who had worked on trying to solve the puzzle, there was enough time for people to get out there, he ran out to the bridge trying to get the dog out of the car and there is great footage of him, it looks like a Steven Spielberg movie. Today you watch that footage and you cannot imagine that somebody would run out onto the bridge with this tearing deck. He got up and the dog was too terrified to get out so he gave up and strolled among he was not down a couple times by the movement. And finally got off the bridge and in the few moments that followed him a the deck for away from the hangers and witnesses talk about it being like listening to gunshots. These bolts that are the cable comes down and goes through the deck and there is a big bolt on the bottom to keep it from pulling out, they began to pop and the cables began to snap under the force. The light standards on the bridge are cutting, swirling across rapidly and catching on the cables in just a moment. The connection between two sections of the bridge deck failed and there is a violent twist and tear of the deck and the moments that followed that im a huge sections began to fail. And most of the center span of the bridge underneath the big suspension cables falls away, drops away from the bridge and plunges into puget sound. No one is killed in the incident. No one is even heard. They demolish as much as it as they can. As they begin to think about having to reengineer the whole the clouds of war close war and byond world that time, they realized there was no way during the war effort that they were going to be able to get the bridge rebuilt and the pearl harbor happens, shipyards become a critical strategic thing and the focus shifts away from public works project. The towers and the steel on the and wroughtmoved into the war effort, recycled and turned into bullets and tanks and whatever. Sections of the bridge, of the steel are used on the alaska highway to build a highway at two alaska during the Second World War because of the program that ties with the northwest and alaska. Gertienants of galloping setting the channel through the war and then it is only after the war that they begin to another suspension bridge. In 1950, the second tacoma narrows bridge is complete. That is the bridge we see in the distance here. The steel bridge that is standing, the steel towers in the distance. Is a textbookhere or a reference book written about bridge engineering that does not include tacoma in the index because of the tacoma narrows bridge. And it is impossible for me to imagine that engineering students all of the world have seen the film of galloping gerties collapse. It is one of those absolutely andlbinding moments engineering history, one of those disasters, those utter failures of design that is completely captured on film. It is amazing, it still is hugeropping to see a endeavor like this, is a cool at move with this much dance, outside of the parameters of the original design. Washingtons importance in the National Suffrage effort comes by the fact that we were the first state in the 20th entry and followed almost a 20 adoptingbetween states their own suffrage amendment. It takes a certain number of states to pass the National Amendment to the constitution and we were the fifth state and all of the first states, about six were located here in the west. Washington became a pivotal state making that leap into the 20th century and after we passed it in 1910, there was a domino effect across the country. Immediately, oregon passed it in 1911 followed by california and then moved to the dakotas, andaska, montana, progressed across to new york in 1919 and the National Amendment in 1920. You could call us a big turning point in the effort to gain suffrage for women in the united states. 1848, the big event that began the Suffrage Movement did happen in new york to mother that was the Womens Convention and seneca falls led by Susan B Anthony among other leaders. Interestingly enough, right after that, she began a whirlwind trip to territorial areas through the u. S. And states to advocate for womens rights. And to vote. One of the early leaders in the 20th century in Washington State saw her in 1848 as an eightyearold. Barnstorming through illinois and that is ms mist of oh , smithma duveau. Anthony andn b who believes that women have the right to vote and when she was eight years old she stood up. That has a connection to our tote from 1848 right through 1910 in as the Womens Convention in seneca falls, women and men, emilys who were traveling west, these were hardy people and at that time, 1850, Congress Passed the Organ Donation land claim laws. Anybody who came to the oregon territory before 1849 got out right 640 acres of land. After 1850, they cut that in half to 320 acres but the that amount of land, half of it was in the womans name. 320 acres were given to a couple. If you were a single man, you got half of that, if you were a single woman you got half of that it half of that acreage was always in the womans name. So right away, women have land claim ownership. That was an important part of the oregon trail europe. 1850 three, washington becomes a separate territory from oregon and in the first territorial legislative meeting which was in olympia which becomes our capital city eventually, the delegatesies, early wanted to pass womens suffrage in washington, that was part of the platform for the first legislative session in that Territorial Congress for washington and it got voted down. It was brought up right away and they were very early men in the legislature who advocated for womens suffrage. Fastforward to the 1880s and washington is working very hard at the effort to become a state which is achieved in 1889. In the 1880s, women in the territory when the right to vote in 1883. Immediately, they start to vote for more Progressive Agenda in the territorial legislature. And they also unseat some of the more corrupt leaders in communities like the seattle mayor who was known to have influence with saloons, prostitution, and gambling. They vote him out of office. You can imagine that suffrage is not proving that popular with a lot of people. While the legislature, the legislature in those days before we were a state could vote yes or no and pass suffrage, it did not take an amendment to the constitution and women argued that the first territorial he or mail inaid a lot of places and it should be here she or woman and men and they voted for it in 1883, it passed but who got it rescinded in 1888 . The Territorial Supreme Court. Who was opposed to women voting and one particular justice really opposed it. Menopposition came because did not want women serving on juries and that is where the division came up and the Territorial Supreme Court short version is they voted to the past a decision that removed womens right to vote. Smith emma s deveaux has been a paid staffer working on behalf of suffrage and temperance and by monthshe was paid 100 a by the National American womens suffrage association. So she comes out here to become the leader of the Washington State Suffrage Movement. I 1906, her husband worked for the Great Northern railroad so she has a salary and he gets her railroad passes. She can travel all over on a Free Railroad ticket which is a great advantage. They moved to tacoma and she along with others establishes the Washington Equal Suffrage Association which she is president of. I thought it was interesting that her message becomes the counteract theo view that washington women do not want suffrage, they really throughard organizing 1905, 1906, 19 oh 7, 1908 and we know we want to get the suffrage bill passed and so we have to get an amendment out there to the voters and it has to be by twoi two thirds thirds of a majority of voters, male voters in the state of washington to pass. We have a combination of important women coming together. Duveaux joins up with hutton. Camp crookedness in a silver mines in northern idaho. In the quarter lane district. She married at railroad engineer and theyme of hutton buy an interest in the hercules mine. The hercules mind becomes the most profitable silver mine of that era. In idaho. And they become millionaires almost overnight. She is a very colorful figure. Who comes outma of the temperance abolitionist suffrages movement and you have may and they descend on olympia together and the legislature that is all men of course in the Work Together in different ways to get the legislature to approve an amendment for the ballot. January of 1909, the bovote and itouse votes and theo 20 Washington State Senate Passes by a bigger majority. In 1909, the governor signs a bill to create the opportunity for washingtonians to vote for suffrage for war and for women in Washington State. That vote is going to come up inore Washington Men november of 1910. And so, the suffrage amendment 1910 and november 8, washington becomes the first fifth state in the union to pass suffrage. The people coming west were people who were probably risk takers, were working to break out of some conventional life that they might have experienced in the east and a lot of suffragettes came out here and worked from the east and worked hard because they saw the opportunity. Right now we are standing in the great hall of washington history of the Washington State History Museum in tacoma, washington. This gives visitors a brief overview of the history of our sides. Rom east and west it tells you about the people who shaped the state as well as some of the Major Industries and event that are part of our past to this exhibit focuses on the early for history of Washington State from the geology to the first peoples who came to this area. Next to me is one of the museums premier artifact collections, the clovis lanes that were found in eastman at cheap. They were found in 1987 when the couple of farmworkers were digging an irrigation ditch. While the workers one of the shovels hit a piece of stone and he pulled it out and realized what it appeared to be and thats when it what it appeared to be was a broken arrowhead created was one of the earliest evidences of people in north america. One of the unique thing about the clovis points in the collection is that they are two or three times bigger than clovis points found in other sites across the country. Points, therejust everything from scrapers that were used to scrape height to mysterious bone rots made of mastodon bones, there is a lot of debate about whether what they represent. Anything from a hunting tool to a ceremonial device to perhaps even a sled runner. The mystery is still out there. This is where we talk about the early shipbuilding industry is well as the tools that ship right to use and the spruce Army Division during world war i. To give you an error an idea it against in 1792. Vancouver sailed out. Crew explorede the shoreline. That is when the first view of tacoma as a waterfront happened. One of the best mode left legions was tugboat annie. The story is pretty entertaining. Christiansen thea andstiansen met her husband came to america. Edward made enough money and set the money home with the idea thea would join him. Thea gave the money to his brother. She wanted to make enough money to earn her own passage. When the couple finally united and became married, they moved out to the northwest and where andrew found work. After that dried up he took a number of jobs, he was a carpenter, he took a number of jobs around the region. Thea was trying to find a way to help make money and she boat. Ased a it forchased four dollars and patched it up and made money to purchase more and began renting them out. When andrew came back they realize that boat was the way to make money in the growing area. From that beginning they lot launched the boat and tug company which became the empire it is today. One of the Major Industries has always been the logging industry so in terms of the mills and the shipping industry and also the people who, the industry that came up around the loggers who came to town and needed entertainment and a place to live. This is a giant douglas for. Old, it was not logged but it is a good example of the type of tree that people found when they came out here to Washington State. They became involved in the timber industry. The timber in washington was so big that different tools had to be made to log out here. Of the size of the red cedar, douglas for, and other giant oldgrowth trees. Tacomas first mill started in 1852. The city of San Francisco burned and rebuilt and turned and rebuilt again the need for lumber was driven high. Forer went from being 15 1000 feet all the way up to 150 within the space of a couple of years. They went through a number of changes. Lumberout the 1880s, ran high but in 1890, the panic came. The financial depression Software Time a slump in tacomas fortunes. By the time the depression ended , Northern Pacific was on the upswing again and it moved to tacoma. Tacoma used the lumber industry to start to rebuild the city and produce a huge amount of lumber so much so it became known as the lumber capital of the world. History museume hopes to be a place for the people left to, and Pacific Northwest and across the u. S. Can come and see a part of washingtons history whether that the a slice of smalltown life or about some of the bigger events that have happened here. We are at a really beautiful place here in puget sound, this is the squally homeland, it is also known as [inaudible] country. That means place for you get your spirit power. Over the top of the hill is looking out at the nisqually refuge and heading out to the puget sound. The nisqually people were originally known as the people of the river, people of the grass. And our homeland has always been this entire beautiful area. Here free territory time and per united states. The squally tribe is definitely most active here and i do not see them going away. We were a federally reckoned nice tribe stemming from the Medicine Creek treaty from the 1850s, it is important to us because it helps identify the without atribe relationship to the federal government so that is an important thing. The federal government does play a role with the federally recognized tribes to recognize their sovereignty and are supposed to look out for best interests. That treaty established that relationship. It established also our trade areas. First area of five areas that Governor Stevens had carved out of the washington territory to execute treaties. Governor stevens was bringing railroad to the area that is was his parity and when he was charged with doing so he came as our first territorial governor and our first indian superintendent. He wanted to put all of our indian people on their own treaties and then bring that railroad through so that the commerce could come in and they could flourish, the nonindian people could flourish with what they wanted to build here. When he did come here, he negotiated right off the bat this Medicine Creek treaty. Barrier of huge language. Governor stevens spoke english. At the tribal people did not speak english. There was happening in the middle of winter and some of the old journals say it was ceaseless rain and we were used to that. And expectedthat it. It was difficult for the nonindian people and there were just a few at that time who were here permanently to make new homes, take advantage of that land donation act, bring more nontribal people to the area for permanent settlement. Brother knew his that, the Medicine Creek treaty was our first interaction with nonindian people. The scenario that constitutes our relationship with nontribal people. That negotiation happened for Medicine Creek treaty which did not go well, we were off to a very bad start. And following that negotiation of that treaty was the puget sound indian war. The nisqually tribe, they did not have a sitting chief, they would choose a leader at the time they needed a leader. At that time that this very contentious situation was happening between tribal and nontribal people, nontribal people coming in and settling on grounds that tribal people had hunthunted and rather, it was getting to the people point where people were taking action and fighting it out to see who was going to stay. The chief was chosen by the people to leave them through that very contentious situation. He was a person of Good Standing in the tribe, he was known as an orator, he was known as a judge who could help when there was conflict within the tribe when he was known as an engineer when it came to fishing and burning the prairies so that they were not overtaken by trees or plants that were not going to provide a food source in the future. He knew an awful lot, he knew about how to live on this land. And help all of the people here. So he had a lot of great skills and when it came time to deal with the puget sound indian war, there was a militia made up of the farmers and people here in this area and if you can imagine at that time over 150 years ago there were probably pretty not knowing the tribal people and knowing that they are coming in on someones homeland and trying to make their own home. It was probably a very tense situation for them. This group of militia people who were not trained in military mainly,will immerse pull themselves together and eschicoming after chief l and his people. And other banded together and stood eye the tribe. They were not out in out battles. There was skirmishes and that was based on bumping into each other. People did not note this area very well. So you can see how it was hard for them to strategize a battle or Something Like that. There was one particular incident where there were some military personnel along with the militia people and they ran into a band of tribal warriors , the battles some was big enough that there were people killed. Battle, Governor Stevens had just gotten back ofm his tour of negotiation treaties and he had heard about this mental and he was so upset was causing this trouble and all this hysteria and people did not feel safe and were concerned about building hi becameland, so lesc his scapegoat and he went after leschi and called a murder of a lieutenant who was shot or killed on the battlefield during a time of battle. Fore was a price put out leschi, he was brought in and put in jail and he was in there for quite some time. If you can imagine a person who grew up here in this beautiful eating deer,ish, eating all this natural food and staying healthy, and then being put into a jail and who knows what he was fed four months. Fter months he became really sick and he was heartbroken because he was not with his family and he was not there ejecting his people. Knowing that he was in jail, his had decided he was going leastn himself in and at stick by the side of his brother while he was in jail. Prior to all of this leschi and his brother had made friends with the farmers. Even the [inaudible] that are names that are still here now. They have been a big part of our history. They became good friends and so a couple of those individuals including the longmeyers rode him down to where the governor was staying and he turned himself in, it was well past midnight, the governor was found asleep so some of his personnel leschis brother in a office downstairs and locked the door so he was locked in there. He sat down against the wall and buried his head in his knees and was asleep. Somebody was able to get into that room and stab him. He got up and ran out the front door after the person who stabbed him and he made it about 10 or 15 feet and fell to his death ray there. This was on the governor store step. Nothing ever happened to that quiemuth. Stabbed there was a man who was detained and let go. Nothing was ever said of that. That was one of our beloved leaders who was treated in that matter that manner. Himself,t in jail by to see what was going to happen. A trial was scheduled and this upal was happening, it ended in a hung jury so there was a second trial that was scheduled and this one was in downtown olympia which was the hotbed for all this hostility, farmers against tribal people and indian people were having a hard time, they lost some of their beloved leaders, they had lost a lot of families including elders and children and the massacre which was a big heart of that puget sound war. We just had been beat down during this the second trial, which included evidence from dr. An officer that showed the socalled murder of this lieutenant during a time of war who Governor Stevens was using that particular incident to say was a murdererhi and he needed to be accountable for that action area this that action. This trial was focused on finding chief leschi guilty. Even though there was a mound of evidence including maps, they measured in chains so they had testimony that leschi was with certain people at point a and the murder, the socalled murder of this lieutenant in this time of war over here was too far away for leschi to even be there. It was really a farce, but he was found guilty because it was so hostile here. Was taken back to jail, there was a hanging that was scheduled, and Governor Stevens wanted the support of the regular army and the general at that time was not going to do that it has there really was not, it could have been controlled but Governor Stevens had such tunnel vision on creating this railroad and bringing commerce here that he was forgetting about the people and he was not showing any care whatsoever for the nisqually people and the other tribal people who had lived here for generations, for thousands of years. Made thisvernment play to make all the tribes to matter what their past was farmers. Sometimes that worked because they did farm but for a lot of tribes it did not work because they were either hunters or. Atherers or maybe more nomadic we were fishermen and people of the grass. We were not farmers. That really was a death sentence and that is why the puget sound indian war happened and that is quiemuth stood up and said we will stand our ground, we will have our people stay on the server and have access to the grasslands. After all of this and try to get that Medicine Creek treaty collected to at least have our people on the river, after the two trials that happened, after being found guilty, ever after everything that happened, leschi tome for chief be hanged and that was the sentence he was given by the judge at that time and the judge ordered for the regular army to do the hanging. The army whos in had to actually do the hanging said he felt like he was hanging an innocent man, and he regretted having to do that, they were not happy about having to do that. Stevens was reprimanded i the president for this whole thing and for that specifically. Leschi was hanged and his last words were forever the people remember him and after what happened to the nisqually send all the indian people and one day his spirit would be free his children all grandchildrend and their grandchildren to know what happened at that time, that time that really was what constitutes our relationship with the nontribal people of Washington State. After all that that happened ss, 150as so much lo years later, one of my elders, cecilia carpenter, she believed the stars were in the right place and my uncle sherman leschi who i adored and loved sat me down one afternoon and said i have a project for you, it is time to clear leschis name. Same timenking at the cecilia was thinking this is a good time for the tribe do something for leschi after all this time. That is when we started talking, i started talking amongst other who have same kind of passion to spirit andeschis clear the air on what had happened. There were some great people who came out of that Historical Community and the Political Community including chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Pierce County executive john laddenburg. When they joined our group and felt that passion and pulled together the pieces we needed to create this Historical Court that happened in Washington State museum in december of 2004 and it was a full day of court area this was the third trial for leschi. There were eight appointed judges, there were witnesses that were experts in their field, including military experts who came in and spoke on that battle that had happened where that lieutenant had been killed. And all of that evidence was the maps, the testimony, and all those things were brought forward and it was all of day, but through that, there was a unanimous finding and a unanimous ruling and they cleared, they leschi afterief all that. I believe his spirit was freed. Felt sos thought amazing knowing that that the whole story had now been told, discount what had happened in the past, that was important history, but we added that final chapter, that closed it. Importantly, it shows a real strength of tribal sovereignty, it shows a real andngth of tribal culture, the desire of indian people to keep our culture alive and make sure that it is not taken away. There were many attempts through indian policy and through all kinds of situations like this ut indiantried to sh people down. This is one of the actions, there is a lot of great indian leaders in our history and for standing there solid, maintaining our sovereignty, and letting people know that this border will never be rogan. Be broken. Our visit as an American History tv exclusive and we showed it to introduce you to cspan cities tour. For six years we have traveled to u. S. Cities ringing the literary scene and Historic Sites to our viewers. You can watch more of our visit at cspan. Org citiestour. Cspan cities tour is in spokane, washington with our Comcast Cable partners as we export that citys rich history and literary aim. Saturday at 7 30 p. M. , look tv features the history and tonymic element with bumonte. Spoke and was built strike had the gold among the gold rush of 1883 and that seldom led to a silver strike and it was one of the largest producing silver areas in the state. A lot of the dog big buildings are built then. Hunt talks about his book. Was one of the most significant environmental thinkers and leaders, the protagonist for the National Parks is wisdom park system. American history tv features the story of expose them before, one of the first environmentally themed world fares. Spokane was one of the smallest cities in the world ever to host a worlds fair but it was the first environmental worlds fair, the first to use the environment as a theme and 1972 wased close on earth day, the very first earth day and there was a great consciousness around the world that environmentalism and it became the theme and arguably the obsession of expo 74. We will visit the childhood home of spokane native being crosby. Onurday at 7 30 p. M. Eastern book tv and sunday at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv on cspan3. Working with a discussion on the impact of technology on race. After that, President Trump getting wet agencies about providing disaster relief. Then a townhall meeting with senator Kamala Harris from california. Next, a look at the impact of education and technology on race and the american class system. Publichosted by zocalo square. It is an hour and 10 minutes. [applause] we had some whistlers