The Strange Fate of a Goldendale Defendant
A legal dispute takes a turn when two attorneys realize their client paid them in horses, which he then traded away.
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.
Two Goldendale attorneys agreed to defend an Indian charged with crime for five cayuses. When they claimed their fee, they found that the horses had been traded for a squaw whom the Indian was willing to surrender, as he had been convicted, and now the lawyers are ransacking all of the authorities to hit upon an equitable mode of division of their property.
“The lawyers are ransacking all of the authorities to hit upon an equitable mode of division of their property.”
This item illustrates the casual, dehumanizing racism of 1890s frontier journalism, where the exploitation of Indigenous people and the commodification of individuals was treated as a legal curiosity. It serves as a stark reminder of the power dynamics inherent in the territorial justice system.
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