Tacoma Petitions to Throw Open the Puyallup Reservation
Businessmen, railroad men and politicians circulate petitions to oust the Puyallup Indian agent and dismantle federal restrictions, arguing the reservation's lands and rail routes should be 'opened' — a dispossession dressed as progress.
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.
TACOMA, March 1 — [Special.] — The citizens of Tacoma have taken up the cause of the Puyallup Indians in their effort to secure the immediate opening of the Puyallup reservation. In favoring red tape measures, such as the Dawes and Wilson bills for the opening of the reservation, Agent Eells has been deemed an obstructionist by the leading intelligent Indians. Accordingly petitions for his removal were circulated today by County Commissioner Fawcett, Samuel Wilkeson, ex-Judge Frank Allyn, Rev. Father Hylebos, City Controller Samuel Slaughter, ex-City Clerk W. J. Mead and others. Petitions have also been sent to Orting, Puyallup and Sumner. Already 2,000 persons have signed petitions here, among the signers being representatives of the Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific and Great Northern railroads, and prominent citizens irrespective of political affiliations.
Dolph D. Hannah, state Populist leader, has also wired Senator Peffer to favor Senator Allen's Puyallup reservation bill instead of the Wilson bill. Petitions are addressed to Grover Cleveland and will reach him after his inauguration. They pray for the removal of Eells and the appointment of William B. Kelly, of Sumner, ex-county auditor. The petitions also recite that railroads are needed and desired, and pray for the removal of restrictions unconditionally and that the Indians be allowed to dispose of their lands as provided by the Allen bill. The Indians are also preparing petitions for the removal of Eells.
“Petitions are addressed to Grover Cleveland ... They pray for the removal of restrictions unconditionally and that the Indians be allowed to dispose of their lands.”
Framed as aid to the Puyallup people, the petition drive was really a push to break up the reservation and hand its land and rail corridors to outside interests — the same dispossession that turned the valley into Puyallup, Fife and Edgewood. The Puyallup Tribe still exists and still struggles over these lands and treaty rights, a reminder that 'opening' land was always a euphemism for taking it.
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