Treaty of Medicine Creek

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The Treaty of Medicine Creek was an 1854 treaty between the Washington Territory, the United States, and the Nisqually, Puyallup and Squaxin Island tribes, along with six other smaller Native American tribes.

[edit] Site

The site of the treaty was near the Nisqually River delta, along a creek then known as She-nah-num by the natives, or Medicine Creek by white settlers. The creek is now known as McAllister Creek.

The signing took place in a grove of fir trees well known to the tribes. Though unmarked and not officially recognized as a historical location, the site was avoided during the creation of Interstate 5 in the 1960s. Since the treaty signing, one tree had remained standing from the original grove, known as Treaty Tree. Treaty Tree was recognized as diseased by 1975, and by 1979 was dead. Seeds from Treaty Tree that were gathered in the 1970s were re-planted in a circle 40 feet from it. It was left standing and was still visible from the Interstate until 2006, finally falling during strong windstorms in December, 2006.

[edit] Treaty

The treaty granted 2.24 million acres (9,060 km²) of land to the territorial government in exchange for establishment of three reservations, cash payments over a period of twenty years, and recognition of traditional native fishing and hunting rights. Those rights were ignored by the territorial and later state government, until the Boldt Decision in 1974. Since that decision, the tribes named in the treaty have had a recognized right to half of the fish caught on traditional lands throughout south Puget Sound.

The original Nisqually reservation was in rocky terrain and unacceptable to the Nisqually, who were a riverside fishing people. They went to war in 1855 and were ceded 3000 along the Nisqually River. Much of that land was taken to create Fort Lewis in 1917.