All’s Fair in War

Chief Leschi pays a price for an Indian conflict.

February 19, 1858. Nisqually Chief Leschi is hanged outside present-day Lakewood, Washington. He had been tried in the killing of several whites during the Yakima Wars. While he led Indian warriors in the conflicts, there was no direct evidence that he’d participated in the deaths—and he claimed that they were committed in acts of war, for which nobody should be punished. The first trial ended in a hung jury. The second convicted Leschi and handed down the death sentence.