An Elder Left to Suffer
A Native American elder, brutally assaulted at a local ranch, is left on an island without medical care by city and county officials.
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.
Peter, an elderly Native American man who was beaten at Harry's hop ranch by Patrick Slane last Sunday, lay in a tent on Ballast Island yesterday. His face and chest were mutilated more severely than first reports indicated. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bogue interviewed him to secure an ante-mortem statement, but the old man expressed his belief that he would recover. Up to a late hour last night, neither the county nor the city had provided him with any medical attendance. Local Native Americans say they will pay for medicine, but they cannot afford to hire a doctor.
“Up to a late hour last night neither the county nor the city had given him medical attendance.”
This report exposes the profound exclusion of Indigenous people from the nascent public health and legal protections of Seattle in the 1890s. The indifference of the local government to a man left to suffer on Ballast Island—a site with a complex, often neglected history in Seattle's waterfront development—remains a stark example of institutional neglect.
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