Editing Pierce County, Washington (section)

==History==
The area was originally home to the present-day Nisqually, Puyallup, Squaxin, Steilacoom, and Muckleshoot tribes. The majority of Puyallup villages were situated in proximity to the area that would eventually develop into Tacoma, while Nisqually settlements were primarily located in what is now southern Pierce County. The tribes had two main routes: a northern path traversing Naches Pass and a southern route following the Mashel River, which connected them to Eastern Washington tribes. Trade networks among the region's indigenous peoples were well-established long before the arrival of white settlers.<ref name="historylink.org">{{Cite web |title=Pierce County &ndash; Thumbnail History |url=https://www.historylink.org/file/8001}}</ref>

In 1792 British Captain [[George Vancouver]] and his party of explorers came via ship to the shores of the region, and named a number of sites in what would become Pierce County, i.e. [[Mount Rainier]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

In 1832 [[Fort Nisqually]] was sited by the British [[Hudson's Bay Company]]'s chief trader, [[Archibald McDonald]]. It was the first permanent European settlement on the Salish Sea. In cooperation with the local indigenous people, a storehouse for blankets, seeds, and potatoes was built at the mouth of [[Sequalitchew Creek]].

In 1839 the Nisqually Methodist Episcopal Mission was established,<ref>{{Cite web |title=DuPont History Museum &#124; Historic Timeline |url=https://www.dupontmuseum.com/timeline}}</ref> bringing the first U.S. citizens to settle in the Puget Sound region, near the Sequalitchew Creek canyon.

In 1841 the [[United States Exploring Expedition]] set up an observatory on the bluff near the creek to survey, map and chart the waters of Puget Sound.

In 1843 the Second Fort Nisqually was erected. Business became mainly agricultural, and the fort was relocated on a flat-plains area near the banks of Sequalitchew Creek for cattle.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6lFAQAAIAAJ |title=Indian Claims Commission Decisions |publisher=Native American Rights Fund |year=1978}}</ref>
The Fort Nisqually property was turned over to American control in 1859.

In 1846 the [[Oregon Treaty]] established the 49th Parallel as the boundary between British Canada and the United States, which left what was to become Pierce County on U.S. territory. In response to increasing tensions between Indians and settlers, the United States Army established Fort Steilacoom in 1849 at the site of the traditional home of the Steilacoom Tribe.

In 1850, Captain Lafayette Balch sited his land claim next to the fort and founded Port Steilacoom. In 1854 the town of Steilacoom became Washington Territory's first incorporated town.

In 1854 the [[Treaty of Medicine Creek]] was enacted between the United States and the local tribes occupying the lands of the [[Salish Sea]]. The tribes listed on the Treaty of Medicine Creek are Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Squawskin (Squaxin Island), S'Homamish, Stehchass, T'Peeksin, Squi-aitl, and Sa-heh-wamish. The treaty was signed on December 26, 1854, by [[Isaac I. Stevens]], governor and superintendent of Indian Affairs of Washington territory at the time. The native tribes were told the treaty would help them by paying them for some of the land. It ended up taking prime farmland and relocating the tribes onto rough reservations. [[Chief Leschi]] of the Nisqually tribe protested the treaty. He and his people marched to Olympia to have their voices heard but Isaac Stevens ordered them away.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022|reason=This whole paragraph(section) just seems v poorly cited}} When the natives refused to leave, Isaac Stevens would eventually call martial law and - after the beginning of the Puget Sound War in 1855 - initiate a search for Chief Leschi in order to arrest him. Chief Leschi was eventually captured and put on trial. The first jury couldn't come to a verdict, so Isaac Stevens had the trial done a second time. This time Leschi was found guilty. Chief Leschi was hanged on February 19, 1858.<ref name="historylink.org" /> On December 10, 2004, a historical court convened in Pierce County ruled "as a legal combatant of the Indian War Leschi should not have been held accountable under law for the death of an enemy soldier," thereby exonerating him of any wrongdoing.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kunsch |first=Kelly |date=November 2006 |title=The Trials of Leschi, Nisqually Chief |url=https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sjsj/vol5/iss1/14/ |journal=Seattle Journal for Social Justice |volume=5 |issue=1}}</ref>