Patkanim
Patkanim | |
---|---|
paƛ̕adib | |
Snoqualmie leader | |
Chief Patkanim (
During the 1850s, he lived at the largest village of his people located at tultxʷ, a fishing village at the confluence of the Tolt and Snoqualmie rivers (today, Carnation, Washington) in a complex containing sixteen longhouses.[2] He was the dominant power from Whidbey Island to Snoqualmie Pass, between what is today British Columbia and King County, Washington[3] According to historian Bill Speidel, his was the major Indian power on Puget Sound, in no small part due to control of Snoqualmie Pass and therefore the profitable trade between the tribes on either side.[4]
Whidbey Island
Patkanim first gained notoriety among American settlers by arranging a meeting on Whidbey Island in 1848, of 8,000 Puget Sound Indians to discuss the rising threat of white colonists.[5] As Hubert Howe Bancroft recounted:
Patkanim then opened the conference by a speech, in which he urged that if the Americans were allowed to settle among them they would soon become numerous, and would carry off their people in large fire-ships to a distant country on which the sun never shone, where they would be left to perish. He argued that the few now present could easily be exterminated, which would discourage others from coming...[5]
A
Raid on Fort Nisqually
On 1 May 1849 Patkanim led 100 Snoqualmies to
Later relations with Americans
In 1854, Patkanim assisted
Patkanim maintained excellent relations with the founders of Seattle, such as Doc Maynard and Arthur Denny. With the approach of the Puget Sound War, they persuaded him to ally himself, for a fee, with the forces of the United States. He assisted in constructing forts and encamped at Fort Tilton with 100 of his troops to block Snoqualmie Pass. After the Battle of Seattle in 1856, Governor Isaac Stevens put a bounty on the head of raiders, $20 for ordinary Indians and $80 for a "chief". Patkanim obligingly provided a great many heads, until the Territorial Auditor put a stop to the practice. According to Speidel, there was a suspicious number of "chiefs" among the heads and many of them were probably nothing more than Patkanim's slaves from raids on other tribes.
Legacy
Chief Kanim public middle school in Fall City Washington is named after one of his nephews, Chief Jerry Kanim. Kanim Falls and Lake Kanim in the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness are also named after the same nephew.[7]
Reportedly, Patkanim had three daughters, Julia, Susie and Elizabeth (Lizzie).[8]
A marker was raised to his memory, near Tulalip, but appears not to include a date of birth or death.[9]
The descendants of Patkanim and the tribe he led are divided today between the
References
- ISSN 0014-1801– via JSTOR.
- ^ Palmer, Christine Savage (2006). "Historic Overview: Carnation" (PDF). King County Parks, Planning and Resources Department. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 19, 2005. Retrieved November 14, 2006.
- ^ "Snoqualmie Indian Chief". Access Genealogy Indian Tribal Records. Retrieved August 5, 2007.
- ISBN 0-914890-02-6.
- ^ a b c d Bancroft, Hubert H. [archive.org/stream/washidahomont00bancrich#page/10/mode/2up History of Washing, Idaho and Montana, 1845-1889.] San Francisco: The History Company. 1890, p. 11.
- ^ a b c d e f Farrar, Victor J. The Nisqually Journal. The Washington Historical Quarterly 10, No. 3 (1919), pp. 205-230.
- ^ Snoqualmie River Hydroelectric Project, King County: Environmental Impact. Washington: Federal energy Regulatory Commission. October 1994. p. 3-69. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Ancestry.com
- ^ lib.washington.edu[permanent dead link]
- Seattle Times. Retrieved October 19, 2008.