Another component of the war, however, were raiders from the Haida and Tlingit who came into conflict with the United States Navy during contemporaneous raids on the native peoples of Puget Sound.

Although limited in its magnitude, territorial impact and losses in terms of lives, the conflict is often remembered in connection to the 1856 Battle of Seattle and to the execution of a central figure of the war, Nisqually Chief Leschi.

The Puget Sound War began over land rights and ended in a cloud of controversy surrounding the hanging of Chief Leschi.

[1] Negotiated by Isaac Stevens, then governor of the Washington Territory, the treaty preserved Indian fishing rights, but took away prime Nisqually farmland.

Three children fled on foot to Seattle, but a five-year-old boy was seized and held by the natives for six months before being released.

[4] A conflicting source describes the attack as being a Nisqually band allegedly led by Chief Leschi, and reported nine settlers killed.

After several hours of skirmishing and several charges by the volunteers, the Natives withdrew, taking their dead and wounded with them, but leaving behind bloody clothing and drums, among other items.