The year is 1826, 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In the next 50 year installment of our look through history two key moments in our local area happen: The Point Elliot Treaty in 1855, and in 1872 James Comeford sets up a trading post which would become Marysville. These two events might not have changed the course of the world but they set up this local area and our two intermingled towns of Marysville and the Tulalip Tribes. For some background, the Washington Territory had just come into existence in 1853, and there were laws on the book saying white Americans couldn’t intrude onto native lands. By 1855 those laws were amended so they could start to claim land out west, even if folks were already living there. So here is where first governor Isaac Stevens steps in to try and get as much land as possible. Stevens, to put it lightly, was a bad person. He forced his views on others, used troops against tribes who wouldn’t agree, arrested vocal opponents, and even declared martial law, quote “until the last hostile Indian is exterminated.” During said martial law he separated settlers who married native americans. As one can gather, he was not a good person. History shall look at him harshly as time marches forward. When it came to dealing with the Native Americans, instead of signing many individual contracts and treaties, Stevens instead lumped many groups together to sign single treaties at once. So at the Point Elliot Treaty there were about 22 tribes in attendance, some speaking very different languages from one another, but all at one spot and told to sign a contract. Now why would they almost blindly sign a treaty, they couldn’t read or understand? To summarize some quotes from Harriette Shelton Dover’s book “Tulalip from my heart.” Tyee William said at the time when his fellow tribes men argued against signing this “We are not going to be allowed to go home… There are soldiers here and they are here with their guns. They come here, get off that ship and then stand around here with their guns. We have to sign the treaty… There is no choice. There is no choice.” Some argued to fight, to wage a war against the United States. The ability to fight was not an option for many, as hundreds of them had died of plague years before. So now they were outmanned, out matched, and forced into a corner. All they could do was play a game of telephone. Translating the treaty from English into Chinook Jargon, then Lushootseed, and from there into the Samish dialect. Each paragraph took hours to translate until everyone agreed and signed. After this the Tulalip tribes would be set up as a conglomeration of many of the signers into one unit. In 1872 the Comeford family moved to the Tulalip Reservation, where they would live for the next six years. It wouldn’t be until 1891 that the Comeford family would have the town incorporated. So join us next week as we finally get into the history of our town, how our founder started the town and what it was like to be a settler out in Washington.