1882: The Duke of York speaks again
Local news coverage by Settlers was almost always racist…
Chetzemoka (image credit: Wikipedia)
…If not in a hostile way, then in a condescending one.
Look how the Port Townsend, Washington newspaper wrote about a respected and famous Native hereditary leader:
THE ROYAL FAMILY. — The Port Townsend Argus thus informs us: The case of Ferdinand Falkenburg, charged with shooting Jenny Lind, one of the wives of the Duke of York, came on for a hearing before J.J.H. Van Bokkelen, Justice of the Peace, in the courthouse, on Saturday, April 29th, and the evidence being conclusive, the prisoner was fully committed to await the action of the Grand Jury at the September term of the District Court. The Duke of York, head chief of the Clallam tribe, and his two wives, Queen Victoria and Jenny Lind, are historical personages, intimately connected with the history of Port Townsend, and rendered famous by the fertile pens of J. Ross Browne, Theodore Winthrop, Geo. Gibbs, Dr. Geo. Suckley and other writers, and the dastardly act of Falkenberg caused a greater feeling of excitement among our citizens than would probably have been evinced had the same outrage been perpetrated on any other Indian outside of the Duke’s family. The injured woman was taken to the hospital where, under the skillful treatment of Dr. Minor, it is thought she will recover. The old Duke is very proud of the attention, and struts and prances round, and brags to every Indian he meets that his wife, the Duke of York’s wife, is the first Indian woman who has received such attentions at the hands of the whites. “Hias klose nika tumtum,” says the Duke, but he adds in an undertone that if he was as skookum as he was thirty years ago he would not ask the authorities to espouse his quarrel. In early days, when the Duke was a powerful chief, he was ever the friend of the whites, and rendered great assistance to the first settlers here, and they have not forgot his kindness. As long as the old man lives he will be cared for by our citizens, and we hope we shall have no occasion to chronicle any further outrage on him or his.
— from the Seattle (WA) Daily Post-Intelligencer of May 7, 1882, page 2, column 1
Hias klose nika tumtum = hayas-ɬúsh nayka təmtəm = ‘I’m very happy.’
skookum = skúkum = ‘strong’.
