The Town Marshal’s New Power: Who Gets to Live in Olympia?
In March 1860, Olympia’s Board of Trustees passed a controversial ordinance targeting Native residents, requiring them to have special permission from the Marshal to reside on any street or vacant lot.
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.
ORDINANCE NO. 4. An Ordinance for the Removal of the Indians.
1. Be it ordained by the Board of Trustees of the Town of Olympia, That no Indian or half-breed shall be permitted to reside, or locate their residences on any street, highway, lane, or alley, or any vacant lot in the town of Olympia, unless by special grant of permission from the Town Marshal.
2. All persons having in their employ any Indian or half-breed within the corporate limits of said town shall provide for them suitable residence for the said Indians during the period of said employment, on, or immediately attached to their own residence, so as to completely prevent encroachments upon the peace and quiet of the citizens of the said town, and to prevent the carrying out of the spirit of this ordinance.
3. It shall be the duty of the Marshal to see that the provisions of this ordinance be carried into effect.
Passed March 31st, 1860. ELWOOD EVANS, President of the Board of Trustees. Attest: Richard Lane, Clerk.
This 1860 ordinance is a stark example of early municipal efforts to exclude Indigenous peoples from urban spaces in Washington Territory. While framed as a measure for 'peace and quiet,' it functioned as a tool of segregation and displacement, requiring Native residents to seek permission from white authorities just to live in their own community—a precursor to the systemic housing discrimination that would follow in later decades.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.