The Tragic Lynching of 'Big Bob' on the Swinomish Reservation
Four men murdered a tribal healer, driven by the enduring power of traditional superstition against the encroachment of modern colonial law.
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.
Big Bob Satta, an Indigenous man murdered on the Swinomish reservation near La Conner last Monday by Charley Williams, Tom Alexis, Charley Seatit, and Big Bill—all now in the King county jail awaiting trial—was a victim of superstition. It has long been a belief among Pacific coast tribes that when a death occurs, a 'tenanimous man' (Indian doctor) is directly responsible, and it followed as an unwritten law that the person suspected should be put to death. It was supposed that the enlightening influences of civilization had dissipated this superstition, but this tragedy proves otherwise. Big Bob had claimed to be a 'tenanimous man' and worked upon the credulity of his people. When deaths occurred on the reservation, the finger of suspicion pointed at him. The Indians held a council and decided their safety lay in the death of the medicine man. Indian Agent Salmon was told of the death sentence but laughed at the informants, doubting their reliability. Early Tuesday morning, Big Bob's body was found in an ashily dug hole near the Catholic church on the reservation; his throat had been hacked and cut from ear to ear. Agent Salmon had no difficulty in locating the murderers, who made no effort to conceal their crime.
“It was supposed that the enlightening influences of civilization had dissipated this dark superstition, but it seems such is not the case.”
This event highlights the violent collision between Indigenous autonomy, traditional medicine, and the imposition of colonial reservation systems in 1889. It serves as a grim record of how external pressure and internal grief within displaced communities were often misunderstood or exploited by the federal agents overseeing them.
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