- Nisqually Chief Quiemuth is murdered in Olympia on November 19, 1856. (historylink.org)
In the early-morning hours of November 19, 1856, Nisqually Chief Quiemuth (d. 1856), a half-brother of Chief Leschi (1808-1858), is murdered in Olympia. Both Leschi and Quiemuth had fought white settlers and soldiers in the Indian Wars of 1855 and 1856, but Quiemuth had tired of war, and shortly after Leschi’s capture, had surrendered into the custody of Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862). Later the same night, as he is resting in Stevens’s home while awaiting transfer to Fort Steilacoom, he is shot and stabbed to death. The assailant will never be positively identified and no one will ever be convicted of the crime.
- Fort Steilacoom (1849-1868) (historylink.org)
Fort Steilacoom, located in south Puget Sound near Lake Steilacoom, was established by the United States Army in 1849. Protection of settlers in the area had become an issue. As well, the United States was anxious to plant the flag on land claimed by Britain. (Britain had ceded the territory south of the 49th parallel in 1846, but claimed this land as a commercial enterprise. Fort Steilacoom was established in what was then Oregon Territory. Congress would create Washington Territory in 1853.) In August 1849 the U.S. Army moved onto the Joseph Heath farm to establish the fort, leasing the land from the British Hudson’s Bay Company. The fort served as a headquarters in the 1855-1856 Indian Wars, but there were no hostile actions here. A major event was the incarceration of Nisqually Chief Leschi (1808-1858) in the fort guardhouse. The post commander and other officers protested his trial and murder conviction, arguing that he was probably not guilty, as a state of war had existed. Fort Steilacoom was closed in 1868 and became the site of the Western State Hospital, a psychiatric facility. Today (2012) the Fort Steilacoom Museum is also located on the site.
- A. Benton Moses was collector of customs for the Territory of Washington. His name would be prominent through most of the time Kautz was at Fort Steilacoom for Leschi was accused of killing Moses during the Indian war of 1855-56