The Passing of a Puyallup Elder
Richard Tinnawali, a tribal leader who helped secure the 1854 Treaty of Medicine Creek, passes away at 80.
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.
One of the most popular Indians of the Puyallup tribe, Tyee Dick, or Richard Tinnawali, died at his home on the reservation Thursday morning, aged 80 years. Before the foot of white man ever trod the shores of Puget Sound, Tyee Dick was a favorite in his tribe, a skilled player of Indian games, a daring hunter and an eloquent orator. At the great council held by Governor Stevens with the Puyallup and neighboring tribes, he was present. In the beginning of the discussion which concluded in the treaty of peace signed in 1854, he said nothing, but after several days of haranguing and when it looked as if the pale face would fail of his purpose, Tyee Dick put his eloquence into action and the treaty was secured. But one other Puyallup Indian, John Barton, living near Tenino, is now alive who signed that treaty and he is old and feeble and before many moons he will have passed to the happy hunting grounds to be with his brothers who sat in that great council and who signed the treaty that meant so much to the white man.
“Before the foot of white man ever trod the shores of Puget Sound, Tyee Dick was a favorite in his tribe, a skilled player of Indian games, a daring hunter and an eloquent orator.”
The Treaty of Medicine Creek is central to the history of the Puyallup Tribe, though its implementation and the resulting reservation life were far from the 'peace' described by the paper of 1904. Recognizing the agency of leaders like Richard Tinnawali helps center the Indigenous history of the Tacoma landscape.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.