A Sealing Dispute Ends in a Killing at Ozette
John Anderson surrendered after shooting his partner Phillips, a Native man, during what he calls a struggle with two Native women. The case exposes how a settler press recorded Native lives—and deaths.
TACOMA, May 29.—A special from East Clallam says that John Anderson, the man who killed Phillips, a Native man, at Ozette last Sunday, gave himself up today. He claims that two Native women went for him with knives and a gun. He tried to get possession of the gun, and in the scuffle it was discharged, killing Phillips. Anderson and Phillips were partners in sealing and had quarreled over the division of their catch.
“Anderson and Phillips were partners in sealing and had quarreled over the division of their catch.”
The item is a reminder that violence against Native people on the Olympic Peninsula was routinely recorded in the settler press with degrading language and little follow-up. Anderson’s self-defense claim was allowed to stand as the story’s frame; Phillips’s own life and community are almost entirely absent from the record.
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