History Paper

I have chosen to work with the Northern Pacific Railroad tracks that lead through campus. These tracks have a long history in the City of Tacoma. They were the beginning of convenient travel from the eastern part of the United States to the Puget Sound. Before the railroad was completed, one would have to take a covered wagon and walk most of the way. This railroad made the journey much easier. The return journey to the East was also simplified. This meant many more people came to Washington State. Many more people of European descent, in any event. What effect would this have on the indigenous population? Not a positive one.

            Europeans began settling in Tacoma very early. The first was a Swedish American named Nicolas Delin in the mid-nineteenth century (historylink.org). He was followed by many others. Tacoma really began a population explosion when the Northern Pacific Railroad chose it as the terminus to the Transcontinental Railroad (ibid). The population grew from about a thousand in 1880 to 36,000 in 1890 (ibid). This was great from a white, development minded, perspective. The indigenous people surely thought otherwise.

            From the beginning of white settlement in the Puget Sound region, there were conflicts between the settlers and the natives. Isaac Stevens, first governor of Washington Territory, forced the tribes into unfair treaties (Richards). Stevens toured the state with his military contingent getting tribes to sign away their lands in massive multi-tribe affairs. Dissenters were killed; an Indian War ensued (ibid). While one of Stevens’ main objectives was to secure the land for American settling, he was also meant to survey the lands for a transcontinental rail route. He had engineers exploring the possible passes. Railroads have long held a negative relationship with the natives.

            Railroads did cause problems for other ethnic minorities as well. The Chinese were run out of Tacoma in a spectacularly violent way. This expulsion culminated in the still unexplained explosion of part of their living quarters (Morgan). Railroads have not always been a friend to the downtrodden.

            Other railways existed in Tacoma before the Northern Pacific line. There was a narrow gauge timber line to bring trees down to Tacoma to be processed into lumber. This ended at about present day South 97^th Street (Morgan). This small time railroad had largely gone bankrupt by the time the Northern Pacific came to town.

            Railroads rapidly accelerated the pace at which this area was settled. Not only did the number of settlers increase, but a new breed of settlers was coming to town. No longer did only the roughest, most adventurous, come to town. People who were used to a more civilized life rode in by rail. Whoever it was coming to Tacoma, there was sure a lot of them. This did not bode well for the already reservationized natives. White encroachment on their hunting and fishing rights led to differences of opinion that still breed animosity today.

Bibliography

Wilma, D., Crowley, W., 17, J., & 2003. (n.d.). HistoryLink.org- the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. HistoryLink.org- the Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. Retrieved August 1, 2012, from http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5055

Morgan, M. (2003). Puget's Sound: a narrative of early Tacoma and the southern Sound (Columbia Northwest classics ed.). Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Richards, Kent D. 1993.  Isaac I. Stevens: Young Man in a Hurry.  Provo:  Brigham Young University Press, 1979.  Reprint, Washington State University Press.