Surveyors Expelled by Indigenous Resistance
Tensions rise as surveyors are pushed off the Colville reservation over contested land boundaries.
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.
Surveyor McDonald's party arrived at Kettle Falls tonight, having been driven off the reservation by Indians who claim that the dividing line of the reservation has been run six miles further south than the line agreed upon by treaty with the government. This would deprive them of one row of townships which they say should be included in the part of the reservation still held by Indians. The young bucks have been sulky and irritable all spring and have frequently threatened to resist the opening of the reservation. As they are well armed, the young men are thirsting for an opportunity to distinguish themselves. Mr. McDonald regarded it as most prudent to retreat and submit the dispute to the United States authorities. The Indian police have arrested the ferrymen on the Columbia River and are taking them to Fort Spokane.
“The young bucks have been sulky and irritable all spring and have frequently threatened to resist the opening of the reservation.”
This event highlights the fraught history of land dispossession and the broken treaty promises in the Pacific Northwest. Today, these same tribal nations are leaders in asserting sovereign rights and environmental stewardship over the very lands that were systematically stripped from them.
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