Stevens County
Stevens County

Author: Kay L. Counts

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2014-06-02

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13: 1467130435

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Stevens County was first inhabited by a Paleo-Indian culture that occupied Kettle Falls along the Columbia River for 9,000 years. A gathering place for several Salish Indian tribes, the area called Shonitkwu, meaning "Falls of Boiling Baskets," was an abundant resource for fishing--specifically salmon. Traveling downriver from Kettle Falls to the trading post Spokane House in 1811, Canadian fur trapper David Thompson described the village as "built of long sheds of 20 feet in breadth" and noted the tribe's ceremonial dances worshiping the arrival of salmon. In 1829, Fort Colville was producing large amounts of food from local crops. And in 1934, work began on the Columbia Dam to generate a much-needed power source for irrigation from the Columbia River. Upon its completion in 1940, the native tribes gathered one last time, not to celebrate the return of the salmon but for a "ceremony of tears" on the salmon's departure.

Stevens County
Stevens County

Author: Stevens County Historical Society

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2007-06-06

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 1439633096

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The land area that came to be known as Stevens County was ceded to the United States government by the Dakota Indians in the treaty of the Traverse des Sioux in 1851. Government and railroad exploration parties, Red River Trail oxcarts, and pioneers and missionaries had come through the area long before it was officially ceded or settled. After the Dakota uprising of 1862, the United States government made the decision to put a fort in Dakota Territory. In 1864, Fort Wadsworth, later called Fort Sisseton, was built. Mule teams with supplies for soldiers and Native Americans, and pioneers began traveling in greater numbers across the tallgrass prairies of Stevens County from St. Cloud and into Dakota Territory. Pioneers from many different countries settled in Stevens County to break up the prairie sod and plant wheat and tree claims on their homesteaded land. Grasshoppers, prairie fires, and blizzards tested their determination, but the hardy ones survived to provide for their childrens education, organize local governments, and build homes, churches, and businesses.

The Love Israel Family
The Love Israel Family

Author: Charles Pierce LeWarne

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2015-07-21

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0295997567

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Winner of the Malstrom Award of the League of Snohomish County Historical Organizations In 1968, a time of turbulence and countercultural movements, a one-time television salesman named Paul Erdmann changed his name to Love Israel and started a controversial religious commune in Seattle's middle-class Queen Anne Hill neighborhood. He quickly gathered a following and they too adopted the Israel surname, along with biblical or virtuous first names such as Honesty, Courage, and Strength. The burgeoning Love Israel Family lived a communal lifestyle centered on meditation and the philosophy that all persons were one and life was eternal. They flourished for more than a decade, owning houses and operating businesses on the Hill, although rumors of drug use, control of members, and unconventional sexual arrangements dogged them. By 1984, perceptions among many followers that some Family members - especially Love Israel himself - had become more equal than others led to a bitter breakup in which two-thirds of the members defected. The remaining faithful, about a hundred strong, resettled on a ranch the Family retained near the town of Arlington, Washington, north of Seattle. There they recouped and adapted, with apparent social and economic success, for two more decades. In The Love Israel Family, Charles LeWarne tells the compelling story of this group of idealistic seekers whose quest for a communal life grounded in love, service, and obedience to a charismatic leader foundered when that leader's power distanced him from his followers. LeWarne followed the Family for years, attending its celebrations and interviewing the faithful and the disaffected alike. He tells the Family's story with both sympathy and balance, describing daily life in the urban and later the rural communes and explaining the Family's deeply felt spiritual beliefs. The Love Israel Family is an important chapter in the history of communal experiments in the United States.

The Bone and Sinew of the Land
The Bone and Sinew of the Land

Author: Anna-Lisa Cox

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 2018-06-12

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1610398114

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The long-hidden stories of America's black pioneers, the frontier they settled, and their fight for the heart of the nation When black settlers Keziah and Charles Grier started clearing their frontier land in 1818, they couldn't know that they were part of the nation's earliest struggle for equality; they were just looking to build a better life. But within a few years, the Griers would become early Underground Railroad conductors, joining with fellow pioneers and other allies to confront the growing tyranny of bondage and injustice. The Bone and Sinew of the Land tells the Griers' story and the stories of many others like them: the lost history of the nation's first Great Migration. In building hundreds of settlements on the frontier, these black pioneers were making a stand for equality and freedom. Their new home, the Northwest Territory -- the wild region that would become present-day Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin -- was the first territory to ban slavery and have equal voting rights for all men. Though forgotten today, in their own time the successes of these pioneers made them the targets of racist backlash. Political and even armed battles soon ensued, tearing apart families and communities long before the Civil War. This groundbreaking work of research reveals America's forgotten frontier, where these settlers were inspired by the belief that all men are created equal and a brighter future was possible. Named one of Smithsonian's Best History Books of 2018