LAKEWOOD, Wash. — A damaged monument that honors the death place of a Nisqually Indian chief in Lakewood has been restored.
The marker was removed from its foundation the week of Dec. 25 and sat damaged on its side.
The city of Lakewood said its crews got the four-ton marker back into place Tuesday morning. Lakewood Mayor Jason Whalen contacted the property owner and offered to have the city’s operations and maintenance team move the monument.
The city previously said that since the marker is not city-owned, it wasn’t Lakewood's responsibility to fix it. It said that responsibility would fall on the owner of the strip mall where the marker is located.
Chief Leschi was a chief of the Nisqually Indian Tribe of southern Puget Sound. Due to his participation in the 1855 Yakima Wars, he was charged with the killings of two Washington Territorial volunteers and was hanged on February 19, 1858, just 300 yards from where the marker rests. The monument was erected by the Pierce County Pioneer and Historical Society in 1963.
The city said it updated the Nisqually Indian Tribe on the process.
Hweqwidi Hanford McCloud, a member of the Nisqually Indian Tribe and government liaison, previously suggested that this could be an opportunity to remember some of the more uplifting aspects of Leschi’s life.
“This is a marking of the chief being hanged, so to me personally, I don’t know if that’s the best thing to mark,” he said. “Is there something more positive that could be marked? And of course, having the tribe involved, that would be something I think would be more positive.”