The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek

A Tragic Clash Between White and Native America

By: Richard Kluger

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

The riveting story of a dramatic confrontation between Native Americans and White settlers, a compelling conflict that unfolded in the newly created Washington Territory from 1853 to 1857.

When appointed Washington’s first governor, Isaac Ingalls Stevens, an ambitious military man turned politician, had one goal: To persuade (peacefully if possible) the Indians of the Puget Sound region to turn over their ancestral lands to the Federal Government. In return, they were to be consigned to reservations unsuitable for hunting, fishing, or grazing, their traditional means of sustaining life. The result was an outbreak of violence and rebellion, a tragic episode of frontier oppression and injustice.

With his trademark empathy and scholarly acuity, Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Kluger recounts the impact of Stevens’s program on the Nisqually tribe, whose chief, Leschi, sparked the native resistance movement. Stevens was determined to succeed at any cost: His hasty treaty negotiations with the Indians, marked by deceit, threat, and misrepresentation, inflamed his opponents. Leschi, resolved to save more than a few patches of his people’s lush homelands, unwittingly turned his tribe - and himself most of all - into victims of the governor’s relentless wrath. The conflict between these two complicated and driven men - and their supporters - explosively and enormously at odds with each other, was to have echoes far into the future.

Closely considered and eloquently written, The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek is a bold and long-overdue clarification of the historical record of an American tragedy, presenting, through the experiences of one tribe, the history of Native American suffering and injustice.

©2011 Richard Kluger (P)2011 Random House

Brutal, essential history

A very important account of the dirty dealing that has come to represent this particular part of American history. While it doesn't have the grand scale of The Trail of Tears or the bigger than life accounts of the battles of of the likes of Crazy Horse, it has a more subdued, sinister quality. It's more about the machinations of a government hell-bent on having its way, and not caring what decks it has to stack to get it, or whom has to be crushed. It's important American history, and sadly not all that unique.

buy it

I know there are many books about this subject. this is a great book. as with the cover you see it threw different eyes.

Captivating

This was a fabulous account of the history of the Nisqually tribe, told through the prism of Leschi. The history was sensitive, complicated, and a great story. The narrator has a low, soothing, gravelly voice - A+ for early mornings or falling asleep to. Highly recommended to all, and basically required reading for Washingtonians.

excellent account

This is the first time I learned about medicine creek. very good book. I hope things better in the future for all indigenous peoples.

Required reading for future lawyers

I am glad this is required reading for us students, it is an important history tip absorb. The narrator gets some pronunciations wrong, but overall good!