From Past to Present: JBLM 2024 Leschi-Quiemuth Honor Walk

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash.—The Nisqually Indian Tribe and Joint Base Lewis-McChord hosted the annual Leschi-Quiemuth Honor Walk on May 5, 2024.

Tribe members, along with local military members of JBLM and surrounding communities, honored the history of the land and its people by walking through the tribe’s ancestral homeland, which has been a part of the base since 1917.

“On behalf of the Joint Base garrison and the United States Army, I’d like to gratefully acknowledge the Nisqually tribe on whose ancestral lands we’ve gathered on today,” said Col. Kent Park, garrison commander of JBLM. “We are here to pay homage to their people, their culture, and the tradition of the Nisqually, as well as the diverse and vibrant native communities.”

This event created an opportunity for JBLM members and the local community to learn the story of Chief Leschi and his brother Quiemuth.

“We are here today to better learn from our past and to show our respect to their traditions, ” said Park. “As Garrison Commander, I can tell you that you have my personal commitment to exercise empathy and to work harder to understand your perspectives and find common ground.”

Along with the members of the tribe, the fifth generation descendants of Chief Leschi, Larry Seaberg, Warren Bergh and Jude Schmidt were also present.

“We haven’t had any family out here since Chief Leschi, it skipped generations down to us, and now we’re the last of our generation,” said Seaberg. “It’s emotional because this is where Leschi lived and where after the Indian Wars, he was executed.”

Seaberg stated that he was grateful the Army gave them the opportunity to walk through the land and that Leschi was not just a warrior, he was a humanitarian.

“He was fifty years old, but probably forty-seven of those years, he was not defined as being a warrior,” said Seaberg. “He was a human being… and a good one.”

Seaberg mentioned that he would help settlers during the winter and bring them food. He was benevolent, and when he needed to become a warrior, he did.

“I think the moral of the story is to have tolerance with one another,” said Seaburg. “Maybe we can learn from people like Leschi.”

The Leschi-Quiemuth Honor Walk is an annual event hosted by JBLM and the Nisqually Tribe, where participants can enjoy a 7 mile walk or 12 mile bus ride around the ancestral homelands of the tribe viewing village sites, homesteads, cemeteries, and training grounds of Nisqually warriors during the Indian War.