Colonel Isaac Ebey killed on Whidbey Island
Aug. 11, 1857
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Isaac Ebey was an early settler in what is now Washington State, and the first white settler on Whidbey Island. Arriving in the Puget Sound area in the 1840's, he worked for US Customs Service, until the passage of the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, under which he stole 640 acres of Whidbey Island, especially the important prairie lands. These lands and the surrounding waters were not ceded by the multiple nations who use them until the treaties of 1855, Point Elliott and Point No Point. Nations who traditionally use the prairies, beaches and waters surrounding Whidbey Island and who are signatories to the Treaty of Point Elliott include Upper Skagit, Tulalip Tribes, Swinomish, Squamish, Stillaguamish, Snoqualmie, Sauk-Suiattle, Samish, Port Gamble S'klallam, Nooksack, Muckleshoot, and Lummi. The waters immediately adjacent to Whidbey Island are further used by Jamestown S'klallam, Lower Elwha Klallam, and Skokomish Tribes, who ceded the territories but not their rights to harvest in the 1855 Treaty of Point No Point.
Following his stealing of high quality Native land on Whidbey Island, Ebey became a Colonel in the Yakima Wars of 1855-1858, in which settlers fought a war against the Yakama peoples and their Native allies. The Puget Sound War of 1855-56 is often lumped in with this, as well as the Coeur d'Alene War of 1858, all of which were wars fought by Indigenous peoples against the stealing of their land by American settlers.
In the aftermath of an attack on the Tlingit community of Ḵéex̱ʼ (Kake) by the US Warship USS Massachusetts in what is now Southeast Alaska, a party came down to Whidbey Island seeking revenge for the killing of 27 community members in 1856. Because an important leader had been killed they specifically sought revenge on Americans of some political stature and Ebey fit that bill, as a Colonel, government employee, and early established settler. Oral history from Kake notes that the party was led by or at least included the widow of the slain Tlingit leader likely from the Tsaagweidi clan. On August 11, 1857, Isaac Ebey was killed and beheaded, with the Tlingit's safely returning north and never prosecuted.
Following his stealing of high quality Native land on Whidbey Island, Ebey became a Colonel in the Yakima Wars of 1855-1858, in which settlers fought a war against the Yakama peoples and their Native allies. The Puget Sound War of 1855-56 is often lumped in with this, as well as the Coeur d'Alene War of 1858, all of which were wars fought by Indigenous peoples against the stealing of their land by American settlers.
In the aftermath of an attack on the Tlingit community of Ḵéex̱ʼ (Kake) by the US Warship USS Massachusetts in what is now Southeast Alaska, a party came down to Whidbey Island seeking revenge for the killing of 27 community members in 1856. Because an important leader had been killed they specifically sought revenge on Americans of some political stature and Ebey fit that bill, as a Colonel, government employee, and early established settler. Oral history from Kake notes that the party was led by or at least included the widow of the slain Tlingit leader likely from the Tsaagweidi clan. On August 11, 1857, Isaac Ebey was killed and beheaded, with the Tlingit's safely returning north and never prosecuted.