Chief Moses and the Stolen Reservation
A Spokane Indian leader bypasses federal agents to protest a land grab in Washington Territory.
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.
Secretaries Lincoln and Teller have been considering the case of Chief Moses, of the Spokane Indian tribe, who has been disposed to be trouble-some because of an executive order issued some time since, cutting off a portion of his reservation in Washington Territory. Moses laid his complaint before the War Department, positively refusing to enter into negotiations with agents of the Interior Department. He desired to come to Washington to talk the matter over, and Secretaries Lincoln and Teller are considering the advisability of bringing him here.
“Moses laid his complaint before the War Department, positively refusing to enter into negotiations with agents of the Interior Department.”
This reflects the ongoing, structural dispossession of Indigenous land through executive action rather than treaty. Chief Moses’s refusal to negotiate with lower-level agents in favor of direct communication remains a historical example of Indigenous leaders using the federal government's own structure to challenge land theft.
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