WITH THE SUCCESS of the “Twilight” series, the Quileute Nation and inhabitants of LaPush have found themselves thrust into the spotlight.
While many movie fans may have trouble distinguishing fact from fiction, the history of the Quileute Nation just might be equally as interesting as any movie script.
By the 1870s, Dan Pullen, born in Maine in 1842, was said to be the richest man in Clallam County. He claimed to hold the title to more than 1,500 acres.
It was questionable whether Pullen actually held the deed to all the property he claimed to own.
Another problem was a large part of Pullen’s “property” was also claimed by the Quileute.
It was about this time when A.J. “Salvation” Smith and family arrived at LaPush.
The Smith family had spent some time at Neah Bay.
There they had endured a bout of typhoid and lost a child to the disease.
At LaPush, Pullen helped them get settled.
Alanson Smith was Salvation’s oldest son, a serious young man who got along well with people.
The younger Smith soon got a job as teacher at the Indian School. Since the nearest agent was at Neah Bay, he also acted as doctor and dentist and settled disputes between the Quileute and white settlers.
While Smith was of a mild-mannered nature, his younger sister, Harriet, who was 18, had a fiery temper, and Pullen liked what he saw.
Soon she married Pullen, who was almost twice her age.
At this time Pullen was also fighting with the Washington Fur Co., which had pulled out of LaPush and left Pullen to carry on under his own name. He filed suit against the company.
Smith soon found himself in the middle of a mess between the Quileute and his brother-in-law.
For years, Pullen had kept the Quileute subdued with violence or threats of violence, and the tribe had taken just about enough.
In the summer of 1882, Obi, a Quileute doctor and man of influence, went to Pullen’s house to complain that Pullen’s pigs had eaten his potatoes.
When Pullen went to inspect the damage, Obi and his wife got Pullen in their house and worked him over good — but another Quileute, Kla-kish-ka, rescued Pullen. Obi went to jail.
Finally, on Feb. 18, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed an executive order that gave the Quileute a square mile at the mouth of the river, with authority for the small reservation vested in the Neah Bay agent.
Much of Dan Pullen’s property, including his store building and his own pretentious two-story house, lay inside this mile.
It was his contention that his homesteader rights precluded this decision.
Pullen had few sympathizers, but found an attorney to take his case.
Later that September, almost the entire Quileute tribe traveled to Puyallup to pick hops.
While they were gone, their entire village of 26 houses was burned to the ground.
Many believed Pullen and two other men deliberately set the fire.
Although Pullen denied it, he immediately leveled the area, planted grass and put up barbed-wire fence.
Finally in 1891, the courts decided the Quileute claim took precedence over the settlers.
Pullen launched another suit to challenge the decision, his one-time fortune disappearing in endless court costs and attorney fees.
Harriet Pullen decided to move on after the court decision — and headed for Alaska and the gold rush.
Smith went on to raise four children of his own, and a foster son. He served as postmaster and justice of the peace. He died in 1938.
The richest man in Clallam County, Pullen, died around 1910, his fortune gone.
And the Quileute? They are enjoying a little stardom.
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Christi Baron is a longtime West End resident who is the office and property manager for Lunsford & Associates real estate and lives with her husband, Howard, in Forks.
Phone her at 360-374-3141 or 360-374-2244 with items for this column, or e-mail her at hbaron@centurytel.net.
West End Neighbor appears on this page every other Tuesday.
