Baseball at the Reservation
A spirited game between Union City and the Skokomish team showcases a complex, localized social history of sport and spectatorship.
The Union City baseball team defeated the Skokomish Indian reservation team on the latter's grounds Sunday afternoon, in the presence of about 200 people. The game was fought 'tooth and nail' from beginning to end. The umpire, Andrew Peterson, however, was too skilled in the interpretation of the national game to allow the crowd to take such an advantage and ordered the game to proceed. The Indians have always won in the past and now feel pretty sore over their defeat.
“The Indians have always won in the past and now feel pretty sore over their defeat.”
This account captures the tension between settler baseball culture and Indigenous communities in the late 19th century, framing sports as a site of both competition and community contact.
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