Mystery at East Clallam
Two Indigenous men vanish after a suspicious boat wreck, leaving only a shredded canoe and a missing shoe behind.
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.
Charley Williams and Billy Williams, two Sitka, Alaska, Indians, started from Neah Bay about 9 a.m., March 29, arriving at this place at 3 p.m. When about one and a half miles west of here, they saw a canoe in pieces on the beach. Farther investigation proved it to be the one the Williams boys had. There was also found on the beach a shoe which it is claimed was worn by Charley Williams. Their friends think there was foul play, as they had considerable stuff in the boat and nothing was found. The canoe looked as if it had been split with an ax or torn apart, as it was not broken as it would have been had it struck the rocks.
“The canoe looked as if it had been split with an ax or torn apart, as it was not broken as it would have been had it struck the rocks.”
Colonial-era reporting of Indigenous affairs was often fraught with bias, yet this account highlights the persistent danger of the Olympic Peninsula coastline and the long history of disappearances along these waters. The suspicion of 'foul play' suggests the precarious social climate faced by Indigenous people traveling through these territories in the 1890s.
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