A Puyallup Leader Sets the Record Straight
Puyallup leader Peter Stanup told an Olympia convention that Sen. Dawes, not Allen, blocked the reservation bill.
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Peter Stanup, a prominent representative of the Puyallup reservation, spoke out at the state convention in Olympia to defend U.S. Senator John B. Allen. Critics, including George W. Delamater of Tacoma, had blamed Allen for the failure of legislation to open the reservation for settlement. Stanup, who spent four months in Washington D.C. monitoring the bill, testified that Allen had worked tirelessly on the measure and secured a majority of Senate support, only to be blocked by Senator Dawes of the Indian Affairs committee. Stanup also criticized Delamater’s credibility, citing his history of financial and political failures in the East, suggesting Delamater’s attacks were merely an excuse for his own unsuccessful lobbying efforts.
“I want it distinctly understood that in no sense is Senator Allen responsible for the failure of the bill to pass.”
This incident highlights the complex and often fraught relationship between reservation lands and state political interests in 19th-century Washington. Stanup’s defense of the Senator illustrates the agency exercised by Indigenous leaders navigating the federal legislative process during the allotment era.
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