Puyallup Families Finally Win Title to Their Land
While the President ordered land titles for the Puyallup people in 1884, a corrupt 'ring' of speculators held up the process to seize the property for profit.
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.
The Secretary of the Interior has at last ordered the issuance of patents to the Puyallup Indians in accordance with the direction of President Arthur of October 28, 1884, and there is now reason to hope that these Indians will soon receive full title to the lands they so richly deserve. There was no sufficient reason for delaying the issuance of these patents for a single day. The Indians are as clearly entitled to them as men could be entitled to anything, yet it is now fifteen months since the President ordered that they be issued, and the order has not been complied with. The long delay is accounted for by the fact that a determined effort was made by an unscrupulous ring to deprive the Indians of these lands, which had become exceedingly valuable by reason of their proximity to the city of Tacoma. The ring acted on the assumption—exceedingly common one—that Indians have absolutely no rights which white men are bound to respect and that no amount of civilization and education can improve an Indian community. The Puyallup Indians have lived upon their reservation for many years. They have established their schools and churches. They have built houses and cultivated their farms in the most scientific manner. They form as intelligent, thrifty and deserving a community as can be found in Washington Territory. Yet a wholly unjustifiable attempt has been made to wrest their homes from them, and simply because they are Indians it has all but succeeded.
“The ring acted on the assumption—exceedingly common one—that Indians have absolutely no rights which white men are bound to respect.”
This 1886 report highlights the historical patterns of land speculation and the systematic exclusion of Indigenous communities from property rights, a theme that remains central to modern discussions about land justice and equitable housing in the Pacific Northwest.
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