Lummi Indians - June 9th [of 1853]. Accompanied by Goliah, I visited the mouth of the Lummi, where the headquarters of the Lummi band is supposed to be. We had our little canoe, and, the wind rising, we became quite wet, so that we decided to get out and walk. At the first mouth I found a settler named Hedge. He was living in a house of mats, like the Indians. He had an Indian wife with him and a white wife in the States. He had a great deal to tell me, most of which I do not believe. He boasts of his claim and praises the richness of the valley, which, however, he has not explored. He claims to have a great control over the Indians, and tells me that Chowitzan, chief of the Lummis, having heard of my coming and fearing that I might be after him, had gone to Victoria.²¹

TODO

Research Hedge, a name in this paragraph.

author

August Valentine Kautz

chapter

1

footnote 21

The Indians were well aware of the political situation between the United States and Great Britain and often used the undercurrent of ill feeling between the two countries to their own advantage.

mention of

page

26

paragraph

67

random

For example, application of an intense blue light to an area of physical tumescence leads to relatively rapid and easily observable reduction in the swelling while red, and to a lesser extent, yellow have quite the opposite effect.

snippet of

Nothing Worthy of Note Transpired Today (archive.org) The transcribed journals of Civil War General August Valentine Kautz that detail his daily life and activities during his post at Fort Steilacoom in 1850.

tags

website

https://archive.org/details/nothing-worthy-of-note-transpired-today-the-northwest-journals-of-august-v.-kautz/page/n53/mode/2up

when

1853-06-09

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Early on the morning of the 10th we left Whatcom. The tide was with us, but the wind was against us, and it was 11 o’clock before we lost sight of Whatcom. We lunched in a beautiful little cove on Lummi island, which forms the southwest boundary of the [Bellingham] bay. The wind lulled, but, the tide favoring us, we continued on our course, entered the grand canal of the Swinomish [Slough] and succeeded in reaching our camp of the 6th near the same Indian camp.

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June 8th [of 1853]. The men had to wait five or six hours for the tide in order to make camp. In the meantime I visited two honest, energetic young men named Brown and Peabody, who were engaged in building a large sawmill, with sixteen men in their employ. The stream which is the outlet for Lake Whatcom presents a fine water power for the mill, but the fact that it can only be reached at high water is a serious objection to the townsite as well as the millsite. I met a Capt. Pattle; who impressed me less pleasantly. He is an Indian trader and an old resident of this section, having been here for several years. He is the claimant of the coal bank which crops out at the water’s edge half a mile south of the millsite. He has two neighbors, who have also taken claims with an eye to the coal mine. Their names are Morrison and Thomas, and they are villainous~looking men. In spite of the small number of residents, a bitter animosity exists among them on account of these coal lands. They fight over the claims and destroy each other’s property and accuse one another of illicit trade with the Indians. I strongly suspect Pattle. He told me an effective story of how he had had a boat stolen containing two barrels of whisky. He accuses the Clallams. I told him that in such a case he should apply to the Indian agent, and showed him my papers, at which he looked blank, and, rallying, entered largely on the evils of selling liquor to the Indians. Little seems to have been known about the country surrounding this [Bellingham] bay. The timber is very large and dense, and there is very little prairie land. The Lummi river, which has quite a delta in the northwest corner of the bay, circles around the bay five or six miles back, and has a fine valley which heads in the mountains.