Kitsap (Suquamish leader): Difference between revisions

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Kitsap (Lushootseed: k̓c̓ap;^[a][1] d. April 18, 1860)^[2] was a war chief of the Suquamish Native American tribe. One source says that he was the most powerful chief on Puget Sound from 1790 to 1845. Kitsap County, Washington^[3] and the Kitsap Peninsula are named for him.

Sources suggest that Kitsap was the brother of Schweabe, the father of Chief Seattle. He was an ancestor of Johnny Kitsap, 1908, also known as Chief Kitsap.^[4]

Having been prominent before white settlement of Puget Sound began, oral history is the only basis for most of what can be said about Kitsap, and many reports offer conflicting information. He may have been one of the Indians who was welcomed aboard HMS Discovery by Captain George Vancouver during his exploration of Puget Sound. Some sources indicate that it was Kitsap who had Old Man House, Puget Sound's largest longhouse, built on Agate Pass, though other sources debate this. Kitsap's apartment in Old Man House was fortified and painted red and black for a warrior.^{[5][page needed]} He was known for archery skills and his wealth.^{[5][page needed]}

Aside from being one of the best-known war chiefs of the Suquamish, at one point Kitsap was acknowledged as the head of the largest intertribal coalition that Puget Sound had ever seen. Around 1825, the Puget Sound Indians, not normally organized above the level of individual bands, formed a coalition under Kitsap to strike against the Cowichan Tribes of southeast Vancouver Island, who often raided Puget Sound. The alliance included the Cowlitz, Nisqually, Puyallup, and Sammamish, among many others. With more than two hundred canoes, the coalition first stopped at Whidbey Island to gather supplies, by pillaging Snohomish and Skagit camps. After crossing the Haro Strait, the coalition raided a Sooke village on Vancouver Island, taking many prisoners. There, they learned the Cowichan and Sanetch raiders were headed across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to attack S'Klallam territory. After leaving the island, the coalition encountered the Cowichan and Sanetch. Both sides, surprised and in their canoes, begun negotiation, but Kitsap rallied his coalition and taunted the enemy.^{[5][page needed]} The Sooke prisoners were executed, then thrown overboard. Another source reports the northerners responded by executing the prisoners they had taken.^{[5][page needed]} Afterward, the sea battle began with arrows, spears, and canoe combat. Kitsap was noted for his archery skills during the battle. The Puget Sound coalition returned with 40 of 200 canoes and the Cowichan with “about the same number.”^{[5][page needed]} The battle was a tactical failure for the coalition, but it successfully prevented further northern raids.

Pioneer and student of native culture Samuel F. Coombs wrote that though Kitsap was a warrior, he disliked the common practice of collecting trophy heads, believing displaying heads at villages was "showing off."^{[5][page needed]}

According to one Suquamish account, Kitsap tried to force himself upon a daughter of one of his slaves, and when she scratched him, he split her skull open with a rock. When Kitsap later died, some believed the girl's mother had cursed him.^{[5][page needed]} Kitsap had many enemies, and a grandson, William Kitsap, claimed he was murdered and buried in secret to prevent his grave from desecration. Reportedly, the Smithsonian Institution later took bones from his grave.^{[5][page needed]}

Another Kitsap, of the Klickitat and related to Chief Kitsap of the Suquamish, was involved in the Yakima War of 1855-58.^{[5][page needed]} While initially opposed to war, he later turned against the Americans. Kitsap was involved in a massacre near the White River, where nine settlers were killed. Kitsap surrendered to the US Army in June 1856 along with Chief Leschi. Though arrested for his role in the war, Kitsap was acquitted, unlike Leschi, who was found guilty and hanged. Known to boast of his healing skills and his supposed invincibility (he claimed that no man could kill him), Kitsap was killed shortly after returning to his tribe in 1860.Three of his tribesmen had fallen ill, and died after he administered them a red liquid as medicine; their relatives killed Kitsap to avenge what they saw as willful murder.^{[5][page needed]}

As Kitsap was a fairly common name for the area,^{[clarification needed]} the two figures sometimes blend together in documents and it is not fully known which Kitsap the county was named for.^[6]

Fort Kitsap, an 1850s Indian village established by Doc Maynard on the Port Madison Reservation was named for Chief Kitsap of the Suquamish.^{[5][page needed]}

• Buerge, David M. (2017). Chief Seattle and the Town that Took his Name. Seattle: Sasquatch Books. ISBN 978-1-63217-345-4.