They could sell tickets for this event, and CNN, Fox News and MSNBC could back up their big satellite trucks.
If Mukilteo ever decided to move the treaty monument at Rosehill Community Center, city officials would have to go through a trio of powerful women who want the granite to stay put.
"They’d have to take on all three of us," Helen Taylor said.
The trio of elders, including Clara Emery, 89; Helen Taylor, 87; and Helen Sievers, 91, are members of the Marcus Whitman Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The venerable group heard rumors that when the city upgrades the center property it might move the monument to another location. The monument, as big as a rowboat, is a memorial to the Mukilteo treaty of 1855.
I talked to Mukilteo city officials, who said the women need not worry. There are no plans to move the huge stone.
That will be a relief to members of the Marcus Whitman chapter, organized in 1911, a sedate group of history protectors and do-gooders. To be a member, you must be able to trace your ancestry to the Revolutionary War.
The group works to promote patriotism and preserve history. Members donate flags to schools, support the Reserve Officer Training Corps, talk to children about history, knit lap robes for veterans and send history books to a genealogy library in Arlington.
There’s been a hot topic at monthly meetings, though.
Plans in Mukilteo call for a new city hall and community center to be built on the property. The DAR is concerned that might mean the stone monument, on the corner of Third Street and Lincoln Avenue, would be moved.
The monument overlooks Puget Sound near the spot where Gen. Isaac Stevens, the first territorial governor of Washington, signed a peace treaty Jan. 22, 1855, with chiefs and leaders in the presence of 8,000 American Indians.
"My thinking, if it’s moved, it will lose its significance," Taylor said.
In 1931, the monument was dedicated in the presence of tribal representatives and civic leaders including Gov. Roland Hartley. As I gleaned from newspapers of the day, shuttle buses from the Interurban Depot brought folks to the Mukilteo High School grounds, where Rosehill stands today.
The first speaker on the 1931 program was Kate Stevens Bates, who said this was the fourth dedication of a monument commemorating the work of her father, the first territorial governor.
University of Washington professor Edmund Meany said the monument was a fulfillment of the state DAR’s motto of "Patriotism, Reverence and Remembrance."
Wouldn’t you have loved to see the Mukilteo rhythm band perform while George Bain, great-grandson of Sitting Bull, danced that evening near tepees pitched on the school grounds?
Bain did a buffalo and a war dance. Other celebrants included Wilford Steve of the Snoqualmie Tribe, August Duclos of the Tulalip Tribes, Chief John Davis of the Snohomish Tribe, Joe Campbell of the Skagit Tribe and Joseph Hillaire of the Lummi Tribe.
"It was a colorful and impressive ceremony," read one news account. "Though the forenoon had been dark and threatening, at 2, when the dedicatory exercises began, the sun shone clear and the mist rose from the waters of the Sound so that the crowd might better visualize the historic event of three-quarters of a century ago when the Indians came to the peace council from all parts of Puget sound in their small canoes."
Here is how the bronze tablet reads:
"At this place on January 22, 1855, Governor Isaac I. Stevens concluded the treaty by which the Indians ceded the lands from Point Pully to the British boundary. Of the one hundred signatures, eighty-two were by Indian chiefs, headmen and delegates of numerous tribes, the first four recognized as leading chiefs of their own and allied tribes were Seattle, Patkanim, Goliah and Chowits-Hoot. The United States Senate ratified the treaty on March 8, 1859. Erected by Marcus Whitman Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution."
Helen Taylor, who taught school in Marysville, said the stone is beautiful to look at.
"You stand there and feel the serenity of it," Taylor said. "You think of the history of the state."
City administrator Rich Leahy said there are no plans to move the monument. Mukilteo Mayor Don Doran also said the DAR needn’t worry about the stone.
"There is a great deal of respect for the heritage and history of Mukilteo," Doran said. "We feel the passion. There would be no way we would move a historical marker."
So we put the rumor to rest that the monument is slated to be moved. In fact, Doran said if anyone tried to move it, he would chain himself to the monument.
That would be worth the price of admission.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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