Puyallup Tribe Begins Commercial Hop Farming
In a historic shift, local indigenous farmers take the first step toward independent hop production.
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.
E. Meeker & Co. have cut up all their quassia poles and sold the entire lot of quassia poles to Stewart & Holmes of Seattle. A thing never heard of before has occurred this year, being the putting out of a small hop yard of three or four acres on the farm of Meeker Sam, who is a Puyallup Indian living on the reservation a few miles from here. This is the first step ever taken by the Indians toward producing hops themselves, although they are ever ready to pick for the Boston man.
“This is the first step ever taken by the Indians toward producing hops themselves, although they are ever ready to pick for the Boston man.”
This small entry documents the Puyallup people asserting economic agency within a settler-dominated agricultural market. It captures a moment of transition from being a exploited labor pool to producers in their own right.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.