Shopping Day for the Indigenous Visitors
A bustling Saturday in Seattle as Indigenous visitors from the bay fill the city's stores with goods and dry items.
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.
Seattle was fairly alive yesterday, and the various business houses were thronged with them all day. It is estimated that no less than $12,000 was spent at the various places of trade. They bought dry goods, clothing, flour and all kinds of provisions, blankets, hats, boots, tea, tin spoons, trunks, wheelbarrows, cooking utensils. Small tribes sat on the stone steps along the wharf. They had just returned from the hop fields, where they had been employed, and all had money. To show the variety of their purchases we will mention a few which can be seen in their camps: at William Garkeek's marble works they bought four granite stones, which they are having appropriately inscribed to mark the graves of deceased friends and relatives; at a confectionery they bought sweets for future use; at a fancy chair upholsterer they purchased one; at a drug store the women bought face powder, paint and perfume, and in many of these they bought jewelry, principally of the cheapest quality; and C. Z. Miles sold them a dozen tin wash kettles, to say nothing of the Dutch oven-ware, etc.; red and blue jackets were particularly in demand.
“It is estimated that no less than $12,000 was spent at the various places of trade.”
This account captures the complex economic reality of the 1880s, where Indigenous families participating in the agricultural economy (hop picking) were also active, visible consumers in the urban center of Seattle—a reality often erased in later historical narratives.
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