State offers apology for lynching

OLYMPIA — State lawmakers on Wednesday approved a resolution offering the government's "deepest sympathy" to the descendants of Louie Sam, a 14-year-old Indian boy from British Columbia who was lynched more than a century ago by a vigilante mob from Washington Territory.

The resolution acknowledges that Sam, a Sto:lo tribal member, had been wrongly accused by the Americans of murdering a Nooksack shopkeeper in what is now Whatcom County.

Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who sponsored the resolution, on Wednesday hosted a series of "healing circle" drum ceremonies with Sto:lo tribal leaders, members of Washington's Makah and Quileute tribes, and a B.C. government representative.

Clarence Pennier, one of several Sto:lo grand chiefs on hand for the events, said the ceremonies and resolution were an important gesture.

"We've got to make things right," Pennier said.

In the winter of 1884, several Nooksack residents accused Louie Sam of killing a local shopkeeper named James Bell. Sam lived a few miles away on the Sumas Indian reserve in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.

Shortly after Bell's funeral, a mob calling itself the Nooksack Vigilance Committee rode into Canada, abducted Sam and hanged him from a tree just north of the border.

But a historian who did extensive research into the incident has convinced officials here and in Canada that the boy was not guilty and that the governments on both sides of the border — especially the Americans — made only feeble efforts to bring his killers to justice.

While the story of Louie Sam's lynching was passed on orally among the Sto:lo and even in Nooksack, many of the details didn't come to light until a decade ago.

Using government archives from Canada and the U.S., historian Keith Thor Carlson published a paper called "The Lynching of Louie Sam." A former historian for the Sto:lo Nation, Carlson is now a professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

Carlson unearthed documents — including notes from two B.C. provincial police officers who traveled undercover to Washington Territory to investigate the lynching — that suggest it was two Nooksack men who killed Bell and then framed Sam.

One of those men later took over Bell's business, and the other married his estranged wife. Both men helped organize the lynch mob and, according to Carlson's research, later bragged about it.

Sto:lo leaders initially considered a retaliatory strike against the American settlers, but they backed down after Canadian officials promised to pursue the matter.

"There was a real fear of this escalating into a serious cross-border conflict," Carlson said.

The provincial government urged American authorities to arrest the lynchers. But after Washington's territorial governor showed little interest in the matter, both governments dropped the case.

Owen first heard about the incident last fall while attending a government reception in Victoria, B.C. He enlisted Carlson to help craft the resolution, which was approved in the state Senate on Monday and in the House on Wednesday.

Tribal leaders said they would like to see the B.C. government pass a similar resolution.

Sonny McHalsie, treaty director for the Sto:lo Nation, said such gestures from the state and provincial governments will help provide some spiritual closure to the tribe.

"It's our belief that someone who ends his life in a tragic way, as Louie Sam did, is not at rest," said McHalsie. He said the Sto:lo also believe that, when someone dies, it's important to let them go so they can move on to the spirit world.

"Every time we mention Louie Sam's name, it's like we keep calling him back," he said.

Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com