Dungeness Massacre

By Kathy Duncan

 

The Dungeness Massacre took place September 21, 1868 on the Dungeness Spit. This was six (6) years before the founding of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal community. Attacks would take place just before dawn, as Northwest Coast Native Peoples believed this was the time when a person is sleeping the soundest. Those involved lived at Dungeness, Sequim (Washington Harbor) and Discovery Bay. The arm of the Dungeness Spit that is called Dead Mans Spit, has nothing to do with the Dungeness Massacre nor is this the area that the massacre happened.  
 
The retaliation to the Tsimishan was for stealing one of Lame Jack’s wives and his son. Stealing members from other tribes was a common practice. The stolen person may be sold or kept for slavery. When an offence occurred there could have been a payment made to counteract the wrong done to Lame Jack. As a payment did not occur then the S’Klallam saw revenge as the means to right the wrong done to a member of their Tribe. Revenge was another common practice of Coastal Indians. After a couple of years Lame Jack’s wife and child made it back after having escaped their captors.
 
Seventeen (17) S’Klallam men took part. Seventeen (17) Tsimishan died and one (1) Tsimishan woman survived.
Of those killed there were ten (10) men, five (5) women, one (1) girl and one (1) boy.
 
The lone Tsimishan women survivor, “Chichtaalth” played dead after being hit. She made it to the lighthouse at the end of the spit (at that time the spit was not as long and the lighthouse stood at the tip). Henry Blake was the lighthouse keeper at this time. Mr. Blake had Chichtaalth taken over to Dungeness to stay with the Benjamin Ranie family, as Mrs. Ranie was Tsimishan. Members of the Tsimishan party included a brother to Chichtaalth and another member was a half brother to Mrs. Ranie. It took almost six weeks for Chichtaalth to recover and start on her journey home to Fort Simpson, B. C. Almost two weeks before leaving for home, Chichtaalth's husband died in Victoria, B.C. of smallpox.
 
The seventeen S’Klallam involved, eleven turned themselves in voluntarily to the Skokomish reservation. The other six were arrested. The men were confined with irons and compelled to hard labor. Most were released after about four months and the others later. The discussion was made that the S’Klallam were living in their traditional ways and had not been “christianized”.
 

 

Information compiled from:
Papers of Judge James Swan, UBC Special Collection
Marion Vincent as told by Marion Taylor.