Centenarian tribal elder killed by train in Spokane
A historic figure known as 'Indian Tom' is struck by a switch engine at a crossing.
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.
Indian Tom, a noted character of the Spokane tribe, was struck by a Northern Pacific switch engine at the Monroe street crossing this afternoon and suffered injuries from which he died at 6 o'clock. Tom always wore a straw hat trimmed with feathers, and a long linen duster. He was said to be more than a century old.
“Tom always wore a straw hat trimmed with feathers, and a long linen duster. He was said to be more than a century old.”
Rail infrastructure often bisected Indigenous lands and neighborhoods in the 19th century, creating persistent points of friction and danger. Today, the Monroe Street corridor in Spokane is a major thoroughfare, but this story recalls the era when regional rail expansion frequently came at a high cost to the people living in the path of progress.
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