When Settlers Ordered This Princess To Leave Her Land, Her Actions Sealed Her Place In History

Who would have thought that a frail-looking elderly woman could be Princess Angeline? It is a long story of societal transformation and this very Princess had witnessed it all. This woman belongs to the Duwamish tribe. This Lushootseed speaking tribe used to inhabit at the lakeshores and bay since the end of the last Ice Age. Her father was Chief Si’ahl or Chief Seattle. The West Coast Metropolis was named after him. During 1851 and 1852, the white settlers started settling down in today’s Downtown Seattle and within no time, they drove away the indigenous inhabitants out of their own place. They also dominated the important aspects of their own traditional culture. The Duwamish tribe though cannot be called a nation-state as per the modern norms, but they were political, socially, and culturally stratified. They had their own religious beliefs, kinship bonds, and used to dwell in longhouses that were cedar-built. They used to live with their extended families. Salmon was their important dietary staple. During summer, they ate them fresh and during winters, they dried the salmons and ate. The father of Princess Angeline, Chief Seattle, was born in 1784. He was 6 feet tall and a very good orator. There was a time when Duwamish tribe was facing the challenge of keeping the tribe together. David Swinson Maynard was the only white settler who was a bit sympathetic towards the Native Americans. Princess Angeline was born as Kikisoblu, but the wife of Maynard found her too beautiful and thought that her name didn’t do justice to her beauty. Therefore, she changed her name to Angeline. Doc Maynard played an active part in naming the settler’s community after the name of the Chief. In 1855, Isaac Stevens, the Territorial Governor came out with the Treaty of Point Elliott. The agreements that were signed were substantially different from the verbal commitment and U.S. denied any reservation for Duwamish. Even after a petition filed by some white settler, the Duwamish was denied the right to inhabit in the city and was forced to move out. Although the majority of the tribe moved out of the city, Princess Angeline stayed back and she used to do the laundry for the white settler in exchange for a living. In 1896, a Seattle photographer, Edward S. Curtis, made her his model for the Native American subject. In May 1896, Kikisoblu died and with her death, the last of the direct progeny of Chief Seattle ended. This is how Princess Angeline lived a common person’s life even after having a rich lineage of a Native American Tribe. Thanks for watching.