The Impending Opening of Quinault Lands
Federal agents move to open the Quinault Reservation for white settlement, promising a new boom for the Olympic Peninsula.
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.
Indian Agent Eells was in town last week and stated that efforts were already being inaugurated for the purpose of throwing open to settlement the Quinault Indian Reservation. The few Indians thereon are already making selections for themselves preparatory to the opening. This reservation is known to possess some of the best lands on the Olympic peninsula, and as there are about ten townships, there is enough for a host of settlers. The consummation of the object would naturally add much to the requirements of a railroad to that region.
“This reservation is known to possess some of the best lands on the Olympic peninsula, and as there are about ten townships, there is enough for a host of settlers.”
This reflects the era of the Dawes Act, where the U.S. government systematically dismantled Indigenous landholdings by forcing allotments and selling 'surplus' reservation land to settlers. The pressure for railroad expansion cited here was a primary driver for the dispossession of tribal nations across the Pacific Northwest.
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