Introduction: Here are some locations/descriptions of Nisqually villages from Marian Smith’s book Puyallup-Nisqually.
16. Located at Glencove on Carr Inlet. This village was originally peopled from the village and Minter and retained its close alliance with it.
17. Located at the head of Burley Lagoon, Carr Inlet. In giving village sites sites the informant that he had [...]

Introduction: Who we are on the Yelm Prairie is part the result of what has happened along the Nisqually River and on the land bordering it over thousands of years The following selections will provide a picture of the natural forces at work shaping the environment that Native Americans and Euro-American settlers discovered.
The Nisqually River: [...]

Traveling the Oregon Trial and the Naches Pass

Introduction: Several pioneers, in addition to James Longmire, wrote accounts of their trip west. From here you will be able to access their accounts of the route through the Nachess Pass and other hardships they encountered on the way. (Spellings are from the originals)
The Naches Pass – Lucille [...]

LUMBER COMPANY IS RUSHING BIG PLANT
Tacoma Daily Ledger August 11, 1907 (p. 16)
Salsich Project at Nisqually to Be in Operation by Next April.
Construction work upon the big sawmill and townsite on the Nisqually, the projects of the Salsich Lumber company, is progressing rapidly. Members of the company that the big mill will probably be in [...]

Introduction: In 1998, members of one of Yelm High School’s U.S. History classes conducted a small number of interviews were residents of Yelm who were living the town during the 1930s and 1940s. The following are some memories that were shared with the students.
Bob Wolf – Interviewed by Holly Joslin
What do you remember about the [...]

Coda: Final Words on Irrigation 
The old timers though were pooh-poohing any mention of Yelm’s soil being unproductive and recalling the years before the depression when blackcap berries covered the prairie, and beans grew like mad out of the rocky ground; and Jack Conner, the director of the irrigation company, was looking forward to restoring all [...]

Irrigation
Introduction: Edgar Prescott, a teacher at Yelm High School and a resident of the town, summarized the impact of the irrigation saga in the following section of his memoir on file at the Washington State Historical Society.
But we were thinking more in terms of a house that was sitting up on a solid foundation, one [...]

Introduction: The U.S.policy to transform Indians into American citizens eroded many of the foundations of Native culture. As the transformation continued and Indian identity was extinguished even the names of Indians began to reflect the changes going on. In the following document one can this process at work. On the left are the approximate English [...]

Letter: Indian Education

Introduction: In this letter from the Cushman Indian school in Tacoma the writer elaborates on problems associated with Indian education in the area. There was no “Indian” school on the Nisqually Reservation, but many children studied at the Cushman School and boarded their too.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
UNITED STATES INDIAN SERVICE
Establishment Of positions.
Cushman Indian [...]

Puyallup, Nisqually, &c., Agency,
Olympia, Wash., Sept. 1, 1882

Sir: In accordance with the requirements of your circular letter of July 15, 1882, I have to submit the following as my seventh annual report as United States agent of the Indians of this agency, this being my tenth year in the Indian service in this Territory:
There are [...]