The Murder on Lummi Island: A Headless Corpse Found by the Trail
W. J. Bailey stumbles upon a decomposed body opposite the portage, sparking fears of violence in the quiet waters of Puget Sound.
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.
W. J. Bailey informs the Bellingham Bay Mail that he recently discovered the corpse of an Indian a few yards from the beach beside a trail, on Lummi Island, opposite the portage. From the decomposed condition of the body Bailey thinks the Indian must have been murdered some six months ago. The head was severed from the body, and a little flesh on the skeleton; a loaded musket was laid across the body, and a knife was on the person.
This brief notice highlights the often-overlooked violence against Indigenous peoples in the Pacific Northwest during the territorial era. While modern true-crime media focuses on high-profile cases, this 1876 report suggests that unsolved murders were a grim reality in remote communities like Lummi Island, where justice was rarely served for Native victims.
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