Princess Angeline

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Princess Angeline in an 1896 photograph by Edward Sheriff Curtis

Princess Angeline (c. 1820 - May 31, 1896), also known in Lushootseed as Kikisoblu, Kick-is-om-lo, or Wewick, was the eldest daughter of Chief Seattle. Born in what is now Rainier Beach in Seattle, Washington, she was named Angeline by Catherine Broshears Maynard, second wife of Seattle pioneer Doc Maynard. The 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott required that all Duwamish Indians leave their land for reservations, but Angeline ignored the order and remained in the city. She stayed in a waterfront cabin on Western Avenue between Pike and Pine Streets, near today's Pike Place Market, and made a living taking in laundry and selling handwoven baskets on the streets of Downtown. She was buried in Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill. The Chronicle of Holy Names Academy reported:

Death of Princess Angeline. May 29, 1896. With the death of Angeline Seattle passed away the last of the direct descendants of the great Chief Seattle for whom this city was named. Angeline—Princess Angeline—as she was generally called, was famous all over the world… Angeline was a familiar figure of the streets, bent and wrinkled, a red handkerchief over her head, a shawl about her, walking slowly and painfully with the aid of a cane; it was no infrequent sight to see this poor old Indian woman seated on the sidewalk devoutly reciting her beads. The kindness and generosity of Seattle’s people toward the daughter of the chief… was shown in her funeral obsequies which took place from the Church of Our Lady of Good Help. The church was magnificently decorated; on the somber draped catafalque in a casket in the form of a canoe rested all that was mortal of Princess Angeline.

S. Angeline Street on Seattle's Beacon Hill and in Columbia City and Seward Park was named after Princess Angeline.