The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek

In 2004, a judicial tribunal led by the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Washington State belatedly reviewed the 1857 case Washington Territory v. Leschi, which unjustly condemned Leschi, a Nisqually chief, to death. Inspired by the tribunal, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kluger (Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris) explores Washington Territory history to examine what led the Nisqually to launch a guerrilla war against the American settlers who had been encroaching on their homelands and abusing their human rights for years. Rather than addressing the numerous grievances, Governor Isaac Stevens used the conflict as an opportunity to permanently subjugate the Nisqually. In addition, he used the judicial system to promote the fiction that he gave Leschi a fair trial. This sordid chapter of Washington Territory's history concluded with Leschi being hanged at Fort Steilacoom.