Death and the Rise of the State: Criminal Courts, Indian Executions, and Early Pacific Northwest Governments

Abstract

In the decade after the Oregon Treaty (1846) formally divided the Pacific Northwest between Britain and the United States, the territorial and colonial governments of Vancouver Island, Washington Territory, and Oregon Territory used capital punishment to combat violence and demonstrate government authority, especially over indigenous peoples. The reliance on legal proceedings coupled with the use of the death penalty marked a shift from earlier attempts to curb interracial violence in the region, which had relied on swift action and summary executions. The use of the legal system, rather than overt violence and direct reprisal, to punish natives who killed whites was not without its problems. The governments had limited resources, judge and juror had to be pulled from a small and widely dispersed population, and they faced plaintiffs who not only did not speak English, but whose capture often had to be negotiated with gifts and promises of justice. While the Indian tribes may not have understood or interpreted the events surrounding trials and executions in the way the government intended, at the very least they were given a preview of how the new government would react to future homicides.

Keywords:

• capital punishment
• trials
• executions
• native peoples
• Pacific Northwest
• Vancouver Island
• Washington Territory
• Oregon Territory
• Hudson's Bay Company