The Land Grab That Built Seattle: How Indian Reserves Held Back the City
In 1877, local editors railed against federal land policies that reserved vast tracts of fertile Washington Territory for Native American use, arguing these 'monopolies' stifled white settlement and speculation.
AN ABUSIVE MONOPOLY.
One of the uncountable abuses for which our government is responsible is the system of reserving vast tractions of the best land in the most important locations in our and some of the other Territories for Indian ranges. The great reserve in the Umatilla valley, east of the Blue Mountains, is an instance in point. The Puyallup and Muckleshoot Prairie reserves, in addition to nearly a score of others, are examples on this side.
A few days ago a measure was introduced in both Houses into Congress to set off a great domain, embracing Northern Idaho and most of the Northeastern portion of this Territory, into one vast perpetual Indian preserve or park.
The needless segregation superfluously of these portions of the public domain only makes chances for future speculations and monopolies. Therefore we are not displeased to be informed by an exchange that the treaty with the Indians by which forty townships of most valuable farming lands in the Yakima valley are set off to them, will expire in 1879. It is said that there are only about 500 Indians who make use of this great domain, which contains 921,600 acres of land, and would furnish 11,320 farmers with homesteads of 80 acres each.
This 1877 editorial reveals the foundational logic of Seattle’s growth: it was built on the dispossession of Indigenous lands. The editor frames Native land retention not as a treaty obligation or human right, but as an 'abusive monopoly' that blocked white economic opportunity. This mirrors modern debates over housing affordability and land use, where historical exclusionary zoning and displacement continue to shape who can afford to live in the city.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.