LESCHI, CHIEF (1808–19 February 1858), chief of the Nisqually tribe of the Pacific Northwest and leader of Native American resistance against the encroachments of the US government during the Puget Sound War (1855–1856), for which he was tried and executed.
The Nisqually believe that a star rose over the plains on the day of Leschi’s birth. He was of mixed heritage— his father Nisqually, his mother Yakima—and was described as being tall and broad-shouldered, with penetrating eyes. In response to the signing of the Treaty of Medicine Creek in 1854, which deprived the Nisqually of much of their ancestral land, Chief Leschi led a series of skirmishing campaigns against US Army and settler militas in what became known as the Puget Sound War. As a result the treaty was revised a year later to minimally accommodate tribal grievances—the territory allotted to the tribes was expanded from 1,200 acres to 4,700 acres, for example—and the Nisqually agreed to make peace. One account even stated, “If [Americans] needed the assurance, [Leschi] would cut off his right hand in proof of his intentions never to fight them again.”
Though hostilities had nominally ended, no mercy would be shown to Leschi by the US authorities. He was charged with the murder of a US militiaman and, after two trials, convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The proceedings were heavily weighted against the defendant: the jury was unswayed by the testimony of a US Army lieutenant that established that Leschi had been far away from the scene of the crime, and they were also advised not to consider the argument that the killing fell under wartime rules of engagement. On the day of the execution some army officers refused to participate, feeling that Leschi was essentially innocent. Undeterred, the governor ordered the execution to proceed. Chief Leschi died by hanging on February 19, 1858; the hangman later stated, “I felt then I was hanging an innocent man, and I believe it yet.”
In 2002 members of the Nisqually, including Leschi’s descendants, campaigned to clear his name. On December 10, 2004, the Historical Court of Inquiry and Justice unanimously declared Leschi innocent, deeming the death of the militiaman a legitimate act of war and thus not a crime. Lawyer John Ladenburg stated, “We cannot bring Leschi back to life, and we cannot restore Leschi to his land. We can, we must, restore his good name.” Leschi’s exoneration was not legally binding, but it had significant sociohistorical ramifications: Washington State public-shool history books were amended to reflect Leschi’s innocence, for one.
Chief Leschi’s legacy and martyrdom continue to be honored today across Washington State in the form of public plaques and monuments, and he remains a symbol of resistance to colonialism and a reminder of the prejudices and injustices that, in the past but also in the present, blight the American legal system.