Portal:Indigenous peoples of North America/Selected biography/2

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Chief Leschi (1808 - February 19, 1858) was chief of the Nisqually Native American tribe. He was hanged for murder in 1858.

Leschi was born in 1808 near what is today Eatonville, Washington, to a Nisqually father and a Yakama mother. He was appointed chief by Isaac Stevens, first governor of Washington Territory, to represent the Nisqually and Puyallup tribes at the Medicine Creek Treaty council of December 26, 1854, which ceded to the United States all or part of present-day King, Pierce, Lewis, Grays Harbor, Mason, and Thurston Counties and stipulated that the Native Americans inhabiting the area move to reservations. Some maintain that Leschi either refused to sign (and had his "X" forged by another) or signed under protest. The historical record is unclear on this point. However, he did argue that the reservation provided too little land for the tribe's horses.

The next year, Leschi traveled to the territorial capital at Olympia to protest the terms of the treaty, but was rebuffed. In October 1855, Governor Stevens ordered that Leschi and his brother Quiemuth be taken into "protective custody" and sent the militia after them, thereby initiating the Puget Sound War of 1855-1856. (more...)