The Massacre at Squak Valley
A coroner's jury investigates the brutal 1885 killing of three Chinese hop-pickers, uncovering a mob's systematic effort to ethnically cleanse the valley.
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.
Sheriff McGraw’s party arrived in Squak Valley to investigate the killing of three Chinese hop-pickers. The coroner’s jury heard testimony from L.K. Wold, who described a mob of white men and Indians visiting his ranch to demand the removal of Chinese laborers. On Monday night, the mob returned, firing on the camp. Three Chinese men—Yeng Bon, Mong Goat, and Fung Wee—were killed, and others were wounded. Witnesses described the perpetrators as a group of local laborers and residents, including Henry Tibbetts, DeWitt Ramsey, and Joe Day, who had openly discussed ‘running the Chinamen out.’ The jury eventually identified these men, along with several others, as being responsible for the violence.
“The Chinamen shall go, or I shall die.”
This event, known as the Squak Valley Massacre, was a flashpoint in the state’s anti-Chinese expulsion era of 1885-86. It remains a grim reminder of how racial violence was often organized and carried out by local laborers and residents who felt threatened by competition, a history that continues to inform modern conversations about nativism and labor in the Pacific Northwest.
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