The first thorough historical account of the great Washington State city and its hero, Chief Seattle—the Native American war leader who advocated for peace and strove to create a successful hybrid racial community. When the British, Spanish, and then Americans arrived in the Pacific Northwest, it may have appeared to them as an untamed wilderness. In fact, it was a fully settled and populated land. Chief Seattle was a powerful representative from this very ancient world. Here, historian David Buerge threads together disparate accounts of the time from the 1780s to the 1860s—including native oral histories, Hudson Bay Company records, pioneer diaries, French Catholic church records, and historic newspaper reporting. Chief Seattle had gained power and prominence on Puget Sound as a war leader, but the arrival of American settlers caused him to reconsider his actions. He came to embrace white settlement and, following traditional native practice, encouraged intermarriage between native people and the settlers—offering his own daughter and granddaughters as brides—in the hopes that both peoples would prosper. Included in this account are the treaty signings that would remove the natives from their historic lands, the roles of such figures as Governor Isaac Stevens, Chiefs Leschi and Patkanim, the Battle at Seattle that threatened the existence of the settlement, and the controversial Chief Seattle speech that haunts to this day the city that bears his name.

A study of the literary influence of Edward Curtis's multi-volume collections of Native American photographs.

From Seattle's earliest days as a Gold Rush boomtown to its celebration of the future during the 1962 World's Fair, local artists have created public art installations--statuary, reliefs and other sculpture--that have become familiar features of the city's landscape. This comprehensive study of 12 Seattle sculptors and their works examines the motivations of the artists and their benefactors, the development of the city's public art policy, and the political forces behind the pieces that are now part of the city's rich history. Biographical details and historical perspective are provided for such artists as Lorado Taft, Alice Robertson Carr, John Carl Ely, Max P. Nielsen, August Werner and James FitzGerald.