A Frontier Double Standard
In an 1878 column, Captain John of the Siutes calls out the brutal hypocrisy of territorial justice: while white criminals get a trial, Indigenous people get the army.
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.
Remarks by Captain John, of the Siutes: When three, four bad white men stop and rob one stage, maybe kill somebody, you send one Sheriff to catch the three, four bad men; same way when some bad white men steal some cattle or some horses, you send one Sheriff: but when three, four bad Injun stop one stage, kill somebody, steal some horse or cow, you no try catch three, four bad Injun—all white man say Injun broke out, Injun on war path, and then come soldiers for to kill everybody.
“All white man say Injun broke out, Injun on war path, and then come soldiers for to kill everybody.”
Captain John’s observation from 1878 highlights the stark disparity in how the justice system treats marginalized communities compared to the dominant power structure—a critique that remains central to modern debates about policing and racial inequality in the Pacific Northwest.
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