Federal Court Dismisses Claims on Puyallup Shore Lands
A landmark judicial ruling clears the way for industrial development by stripping the Puyallup Tribe of their claims to Tacoma’s valuable tidelands.
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.
The doors of Tacoma tidelands, at which transcontinental railways have been knocking for several months, were thrown open this morning by United States Judge Hanford in a decision completely wiping out the claims of Bedford and Grosscup. In their litigation, they sought to force tideland owners to settle on behalf of the Puyallup Indians. Judge Hanford held that the Indians never had any title and that the title of the present holders is good. The court ruled that the complainants set forth no deed, grant, law, treaty, or record evincing any color of title in the Puyallup tribe as a community to the shore lands involved. Furthermore, the court stated that the national government could not have disposed of the lands to the Indians without specific legislation, which was never enacted.
“The complainants are not entitled to prevail for they set forth no deed, grant, law, treaty, record or prescriptive right evincing any color of title in the Puyallup tribe of Indians as a community.”
This ruling represents a foundational moment in the industrialization of Tacoma’s waterfront, cementing the dispossession of Indigenous land through the mechanism of federal law. It highlights the long-standing legal struggle over the Tideflats, a conflict that remains deeply relevant as the city continues to navigate land use, environmental impact, and treaty rights in the same area.
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