Army Deployed Against Railroad Developers on Puyallup Land
Federal troops are dispatched to the Puyallup Reservation to physically stop a construction party from grading a railroad through Indigenous land.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The continued intrusion of Ross and his railroad party from Tacoma, and their determination to build a road across the Puyallup reservation at all hazards, culminated in a telegraphic order from the war department to forcibly put a stop to the railroad building. This afternoon Gen. Ruger issued the necessary order and Capt. Carpenter and his company, of the Fourteenth infantry, were selected to stop the intruders. The troops were issued forty rounds of ammunition, tent equipage and rations and are busily engaged in preparing for field service. They leave Vancouver by steamer to Portland, where they take the Northern Pacific train to Tacoma, whence they will proceed at once to the reservation and enforce their orders against the intruders.
“Maj. French replied that as an army officer he would have to remove them, but they refused to go, hence his request for troops.”
This 1893 standoff reflects the long, contentious history of railroad expansion and land rights in the Pacific Northwest. Today, the Puyallup Tribe exercises significant authority over the development of its tribal lands, a massive shift from an era when federal troops were used to clear paths for corporate interests.
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