Spokane Plains Battlefield State Park Heritage Site – state parks quest #69

Five things

#1. This state park is essentially a monument: a tall, mortared-stone pyramid with a bronze plaque that sits in a triangle created by a highway, an arterial road, and railroad tracks. The plaque reads, “The battle of Spokane Plains was fought near this spot on September 5, 1858, in which U.S. troops under the command of Col. George Wright defeated the allied Coeur d’Alene, Palouse and Spokane Indians.” Typical of historical markers of the early 20th century, White men are prominent; everyone else, less so. The U.S. military leader’s name is in large font; the tribes are crunched together at the bottom. The Washington State Historical Society erected the monument in 1926; the dedication ceremony featured the princess of the National Indian Congress and representatives from several tribes. Today, the historical society is in the process of reevaluating its monuments in an effort to recognize the harmful impact they have on indigenous peoples and include a more balanced version of the events they commemorate.

#2. While the monument inscription is technically factual, it is incomplete and lacks context. Trying to convey an entire historical episode in a small bronze rectangle is problematic, to say the least. The battle fought here was part of a long series of confrontations over land and treaties and the simple fact that the American government condoned, tacitly and explicitly, White settlers and prospectors choosing to ignore the terms of negotiated treaties so they could exploit the resources of the land where Native peoples have lived for thousands of years. Spokane Plains Battlefield is one site in a larger story of resistance and defeat often called the Indian Wars, a phrase used to describe Native resistance to White settlement and treaty talks in the Pacific Northwest during the 1850s.

#3. In 1855, territorial governor Isaac Stevens negotiated the Walla Walla Treaty with local tribes. One of its provisions was that Whites would not enter Indian lands north of the Snake and east of the Columbia, an area known as “the great rectangle,” without permission. Three years later, however, the treaty still languished, unratified by Congress. In the meantime, prospectors and settlers moved into the area in violation of the agreement, and the military surveyed a road that ran directly through the lands promised to the Indians. These developments led to mounting unease among Indians whose homelands encompass the Columbia River plateau.

#4. Fort Walla Walla commander Col. Edward Steptoe led a party across the great rectangle in May 1858 in an attempt to use military might to calm the growing unrest. Camped along Pine Creek near present-day Rosalia, the party found itself surrounded by between 600 and 1,000 Indians angry at the continuing illegal incursions into land promised to them. The colonel judiciously decided to turn back, but skirmishes broke out as the troops retreated. At least seven Whites and an unknown number of Indians were killed. Steptoe realized that his vastly outnumbered party wouldn’t survive the next day, and in the middle of the night they snuck past the Indian camps and made a break for the Snake River about 40 miles away. The Indians, having made their point, simply allowed the Whites to skulk away. When Steptoe returned ignominiously to Walla Walla, Whites leveraged what they termed the “Steptoe Disaster” to lobby for a more aggressive military presence in the inland Northwest.

#5. In September 1858, Col. George Wright set out with 700 troops, bent on revenge for the embarrassment at Pine Creek. Wright engaged Indians at one-sided “battles” first at Four Lakes, Wright’s soldiers killed 60 Indians and destroyed lodges and food supplies, and then at Spokane Plains, where 500 Natives were forced to retreat in the face of Wright’s superior artillery. Wright continued east, a few days later massacring at least 800 Indian horses that belonged to a Palouse chief. The slaughter took nearly two full days, and the carcasses were left to rot at what became known as Horse Slaughter Camp, near present-day Liberty Lake (you can see the historic marker along the Centennial State Park Trail). The Palouse and plateau tribes could not wage war effectively without horses, and Wright’s retribution essentially ended Indian resistance in the region and cleared the way for White settlement. The Spokane Plains Battlefield monument marks the battle that took place as part of this revenge campaign.

Fast Facts about Spokane Plains Battlefield State Park Heritage Site

• a tiny site at the intersection of State Highway 2 and Dover Road in Medical Lake outside of Spokane; findable on Google Maps
• not particularly pedestrian friendly
• no facilities

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Land Acknowledgment

Spokane Plains Battlefield State Park Heritage Site occupies the traditional [and unceded] lands of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, Upper Columbia United Tribes, and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who have lived and travelled here since time immemorial.

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